You find a Head of Growth's email by looking it up in a data source first and guessing from a name pattern only when the lookup is empty. A lookup returns an address someone has already checked. A guess is a coin flip you must verify.
Addresses come from four places. A data provider holds a work address it collected and checked. The company site lists a shared inbox such as hello@, which is rarely the person's own. A name pattern gives you a guess. A personal address sits in some records but suits business outreach poorly.
Only the first is worth building a process around. This guide follows that ranking, using the LeadOcean API. Every step has a request you can run.
TL;DR
- It takes about 15 minutes to size the audience, find one Head of Growth and check the address status.
- The walkthrough spends about 4 records: up to 3 from the search and 1 from the reveal. Counts are free.
- Send only to
verified,catch_all_validorcatch_all. Anything you guessed gets verified first.
Prerequisites
- A LeadOcean API key from app.leadocean.io. The free plan has 1,000 records, one-off, and no card.
- The key in your shell as
$LEADOCEAN_API_KEY. curlandjq.- A target company domain. The examples use
acme.com.
export LEADOCEAN_API_KEY="paste-your-key-here"Step 1: Size the Head of Growth audience for free
Count how many you can mail before you spend a record. Send count=true and limit=1 as query parameters. Arrays go comma-separated.
curl -s -G https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/search \
-H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode "title=Head of Growth" \
--data-urlencode "salesRegion=NORAM" \
--data-urlencode "emailStatus=verified,catch_all_valid,catch_all" \
--data-urlencode "count=true" \
--data-urlencode "limit=1" | jq '.meta | {total, totalIsExact, countOnly}'salesRegion takes NORAM, LATAM, EMEA or APAC. Swap in country=GB for one market. The title is a keyword match, so "Head of Growth" also catches close variants, but not "VP Growth" or "Growth Lead".
Step 2: Find the Head of Growth at your target company
Search by company domain and title. The search returns a thin row with no address in it. The row carries a person_id and flags that say whether we hold an email.
curl -s https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/search \
-H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"domain": ["acme.com"],
"title": ["Head of Growth"],
"limit": 3
}' | jq '.data[] | {person_id: .meta.source_ids.person_id, contact_data}'Each person returned costs 1 record. Keep limit small. Growth titles vary a lot, so if this comes back empty, try "VP Growth" or "Growth Lead" in the same array. Check the title before you pick one.
Step 3: Reveal the address
Send the person_id to enrich with reveal_email set to true. Enrich takes exactly one of linkedin_url, email, phone or person_id. There is no name plus domain lookup, which is why Step 2 comes first.
curl -s https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/enrich \
-H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"person_id": "PERSON_ID_FROM_STEP_2", "reveal_email": true}' \
| jq '.data.contact_data | {email_status, contact_emails}'This costs 1 record. A person we hold nothing for is a 404 and costs nothing. If you only want a deliverable work address, GET /v2/people/email/work with the same person_id returns one current-employer address or null. It costs 1 record per call, even when it finds nothing.
Step 4: Read the status before you send
The status says how far to trust the address. verified was tested. catch_all_valid means we confirmed the mailbox on a domain that accepts everything. catch_all means the domain accepts everything and the mailbox is unproven.
curl -s https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/enrich \
-H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"person_id": "PERSON_ID_FROM_STEP_2", "reveal_email": true}' \
| jq -r '.data.contact_data
| select(.email_status | IN("verified","catch_all_valid","catch_all"))
| .contact_emails[0].email'Empty output means the status failed the filter. LeadOcean gives no refund for bounced emails, so this check is your only protection. Treat catch_all as sendable at low volume, not as proof.
Step 5: Fall back to a name pattern
When the data holds no address, build candidates from the name and the company domain. Four shapes are common. Pick the one you can confirm from a known address at the same company.
| Pattern | Example for Jane Doe at Acme |
|---|---|
| first | jane@acme.com |
| first.last | jane.doe@acme.com |
| first initial, last | jdoe@acme.com |
| first initial dot last | j.doe@acme.com |
first="jane"; last="doe"; domain="acme.com"
printf '%s\n' "$first@$domain" "$first.$last@$domain" "${first:0:1}$last@$domain" "${first:0:1}.$last@$domain"Never send to a candidate you have not verified. Run each one through an email verifier you trust first. A domain that accepts all mail cannot confirm a single mailbox, so a guess there stays a guess.
What you get
Step 1 is free. We ran it on 2026-10-21 for each sales region with leadocean_count_leads. The first column counts mailable people (verified, catch_all_valid or catch_all, the tool default), not every Head of Growth we hold. The filter is the title Head of Growth.
| Region | Mailable Heads of Growth | All matches, any email state | Exact |
|---|---|---|---|
| NORAM | 2,497 | 4,947 | Yes |
| EMEA | 2,164 | 6,010 | Yes |
| APAC | 986 | 3,110 | Yes |
| LATAM | 369 | 1,202 | Yes |
The gap between the two columns is the point. Many people sit in the data without a checked address, so the mailable list is the smaller, safer one. In NORAM the mailable list spans 2,214 distinct companies.
A revealed person comes back in the shape below. This is the response shape from the API reference, with placeholder values.
{
"success": true,
"data": {
"profile_data": { "...": "name, title, company" },
"contact_data": {
"has_email": true,
"email_status": "verified",
"email_type": "work",
"contact_emails": [
{ "email": "jane.doe@acme.com", "type": "work", "status": "verified" }
]
}
}
}Troubleshooting
| Error | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| 401 | The x-api-key header is missing, or the key is wrong or revoked. | Copy a fresh key from the app and reload $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY. |
| 402 | Your records are spent. On Free the 1,000 are a one-off allowance and do not reset. | Check GET /v1/account, or move to a paid plan. |
| 429 | You went above your plan's rate limit: 5 requests a second on Free, 200 on Agency. | Wait the Retry-After seconds and retry. |
| Empty results | A filter value is not an exact enum string, such as north america for NORAM. | Call leadocean_list_enum_values for sales_region and pass the exact string. |
| 404 on enrich | We hold nothing for that person. | Nothing was charged. Try another person_id or fall back to Step 5. |
| Export refused | One export is capped at 50,000 rows a request and 500,000 rows a day. | Split the job across requests and days, or narrow the filters. |
FAQ
Is it legal to email a Head of Growth you do not know?
Rules differ by country, and this guide is not legal advice. Check the law where your recipient sits and keep your message relevant to their work. Ask your own counsel about anything in doubt.
Why does the search not show the email?
Search returns a thin row with flags such as has_email and email_status. The address comes from enrich with reveal_email set, and that call costs 1 record.
How many Heads of Growth can I get on the free plan?
You have 1,000 records, one-off. Each person costs about 2: 1 from search and 1 from the reveal. That is roughly 500 people, minus any 404s that cost nothing.
Can I pull a whole region at once?
Bulk CSV export is not on Free. On a paid plan the Exports page in the app takes the same filters, shows the record price before you start, and gives you a CSV. POST /v1/exports does the same by API, up to 50,000 rows a request.
What if the person uses a personal address?
Enrich can return a personal address when we hold one, flagged by email_type. Work addresses are the safer default for business outreach. Filter on email_type before you send.
Does the record show where they worked before?
Yes. Since 2026-10-17 person enrich returns career history in resume_data: past roles with title, company name and dates, plus education and certifications when held. Past employers carry no company_id yet. The current role sits in contact_current_experiences.
For the same recipe on other roles, see Head of RevOps, Head of Product and Head of Talent Acquisition. More recipes live in the blog hub. Plans are on pricing.
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