Email Finding — Business Overview
Last updated: February 2026
Feature Owners
| Role | Owners |
|---|---|
| Product manager | Lazar Dagalev |
| IT project manager | Lazar Dagalev |
| Lead developer | Ivan Velinov |
| Stakeholders | Kristijan Todorov, Boban Ilievski |
Table of Contents
- What Is Email Finding?
- Why It Matters
- How It Works — The Big Picture
- The Multi-Provider Approach
- The Finding Process
- Verification — Checking the Results
- Credit Management
- What Users See
- Glossary
1. What Is Email Finding?
Email Finding is Sopro's system for discovering the professional email addresses of prospects. When a campaign needs to contact someone, the system knows their name and company — but not always their email address. The Email Finding service discovers the correct email by checking with up to seven specialised data providers.
In Simple Terms
"Email Finding is like a detective agency for email addresses — it takes a person's name and company, checks multiple sources, and returns the best email address it can find."
2. Why It Matters
| Without Email Finding | With Email Finding |
|---|---|
| Manual research to find each email — hours per prospect | Automated discovery in seconds across 7 providers |
| Single source of data with limited coverage | Multiple providers ensure maximum coverage |
| No way to verify if an email is valid | Built-in verification checks before use |
| No awareness of credit usage or costs | Credit monitoring with alerts when running low |
3. How It Works — The Big Picture
The system works like a chain of investigators:
- A prospect needs an email address
- Provider 1 is asked — if it finds an email, great!
- If not, Provider 2 is asked, then Provider 3, and so on
- The first valid email found is verified and returned
- Results are cached so the same person isn't looked up twice
4. The Multi-Provider Approach
Sopro doesn't rely on a single data source. Instead, it routes requests through up to seven providers, dramatically increasing the chance of finding a valid email.
The Providers
| Provider | Speciality |
|---|---|
| Hunter | Large B2B email database with domain search |
| Norbert | High-accuracy email verification and finding |
| Skrapp | LinkedIn-based email discovery |
| LeadGibbon | Professional email lookup service |
| AnymailFinder | Multi-source email discovery engine |
| Adapt | Company contact database |
| LeadMagic | Business data and email enrichment |
Why Multiple Providers?
No single provider has complete coverage. By checking multiple sources:
- Higher success rate — if one provider doesn't have the email, another might
- Better accuracy — results can be cross-referenced
- Resilience — if a provider goes down, others continue working
5. The Finding Process
Step by Step
Queue-Based Processing
Email finding happens through a queue system, which means:
- Requests don't block — the campaign continues while emails are being found
- Processing is distributed — multiple requests are handled simultaneously
- Failures are retried — if a provider returns an error, the request goes back in the queue
- Results are stored — once found, the email is saved and never looked up again
6. Verification — Checking the Results
Finding an email isn't enough — it needs to be valid. The system verifies discovered emails to ensure they're deliverable.
Verification Checks
| Check | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Format validation | Is the email properly formatted? (name@company.com) |
| Domain check | Does the company's domain accept email? |
| Mailbox check | Does this specific mailbox exist? |
| Catch-all detection | Does the domain accept everything? (less reliable) |
Verification Results
| Result | Meaning | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Valid | Email exists and is deliverable | Use for campaign |
| Invalid | Email doesn't exist or domain rejects it | Discard, try next provider |
| Catch-all | Domain accepts all emails (can't confirm) | Use with caution |
| Unknown | Couldn't determine validity | May retry or accept |
7. Credit Management
Each provider charges per lookup. The system tracks credit usage and alerts the team when credits run low.
How Credits Work
- Each provider has its own credit balance
- A lookup costs one credit (regardless of result)
- Credits are purchased in bulk from each provider
- The system monitors balances and sends alerts
Low Credit Alerts
When credits fall below a threshold, the team is notified automatically. This prevents campaigns from stalling because a provider ran out of credits.
8. What Users See
Data Admin Dashboard
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Finding Status | Track which prospects have emails found vs. pending |
| Provider Results | See which provider found each email |
| Success Rates | Per-provider success rate statistics |
Behind the Scenes
Most email finding happens automatically — the system processes requests in the background without requiring manual intervention. Users primarily see the end result: whether a prospect has a valid email or not.
9. Glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Email Finding | The automated process of discovering a person's professional email address from their name and company. |
| Provider | A third-party data service that offers email lookup capabilities (e.g., Hunter, Norbert). |
| Queue | A processing pipeline where email finding requests wait to be handled — ensures orderly, distributed processing. |
| Cache | A stored result from a previous lookup — prevents searching for the same person twice. |
| Verification | The process of confirming that a discovered email address is valid and can receive messages. |
| Catch-all | A domain configuration where any email address is accepted, making individual verification impossible. |
| Credit | A unit of provider usage — each email lookup costs one credit. |
| Factory Pattern | The system's approach to selecting which provider to use for each request. |
| Deliverable | An email that can successfully receive messages — verified as existing and active. |