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docs: research OTC Markets/pink sheets as a corporate-services lead source

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SEC EDGAR (free, public, bulk-OK at 10 req/sec) is the goldmine -- per-issuer
state of incorporation, business/mailing address, phone, SIC, entity type via
company_tickers_exchange.json + submissions/CIK*.json. ~2,771 OTC SEC filers;
~35% US-domestic (~970), of which DE+NV = 73% -> the reincorporate-to-Texas /
registered-agent / annual-report / foreign-qualification target list. EDGAR has
no email (enrich from IR pages or direct mail/call). Texas reincorporation is a
real early trend (48/43 EDGAR filings; TBOC Ch.10 conversion, Texas Business
Court, TXSE). CAN-SPAM compliant B2B; filter to US states to avoid CASL/GDPR.
Do NOT scrape OTCMarkets.com (ToS prohibits; unneeded).
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# OTC Markets ("pink sheets") as a lead source for corporate/regulatory services
Research date: 2026-06-09. All figures below were pulled live from SEC EDGAR (free, public). Sample sizes noted; the SEC data is the source of truth.
## TL;DR / recommendation
- **Do NOT scrape OTCMarkets.com.** You do not need to, and their ToS prohibits it. The data you actually want (issuer name, ticker, **state of incorporation**, business + mailing address, phone, SIC industry, entity type) is in **SEC EDGAR**, which is free, public, and **explicitly OK to bulk-download** (max 10 req/sec, declare a User-Agent with contact info). EDGAR is the goldmine.
- The clean, legally-emailable, *reincorporation-relevant* lead pool is roughly **~950-1,000 US-domestic OTC-traded SEC filers** (see math below), heavily incorporated in **Delaware and Nevada** (73% of US-domestic OTC issuers in our n=400 sample). These are exactly the companies a "reincorporate / redomesticate to Texas" or "annual report / registered agent / franchise tax / foreign qualification" offer fits.
- **Email is the one gap:** EDGAR has phone + business address + (sometimes) website, but **no email**. We'd cold-email via a second step (enrich from the company website / IR page, or direct-mail / cold-call the disclosed address+phone). B2B cold email to these corporate contacts is legal under CAN-SPAM (no prior opt-in required) as long as we follow the rules below.
- **Texas reincorporation is a real, early trend** in SEC filings (48 filings mention "reincorporate in Texas", 43 "redomesticate to Texas") - driven by Tesla/others leaving Delaware, the new **Texas Business Court** (live Sept 2024) and the **Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE)**. Defensible, timely hook.
## 1. How big is the OTC universe?
Two different universes - be precise about which one we're targeting:
- **All OTC-traded tickers (incl. non-SEC-reporting "dark"/pink companies):** ~10,000+ symbols across OTCQX / OTCQB / Pink / Expert Market (OTC Markets Group's own count). Most of these are NOT SEC reporting companies; many are foreign ordinary shares, grey-market, or shells with no public contact data.
- **OTC-traded companies that file with the SEC (have a CIK, file 10-K/10-Q):** EDGAR tags exactly **2,544 issuers with `exchange = "OTC"`** plus **227 with `exchange = None`** = **~2,771** (source: `company_tickers_exchange.json`, pulled 2026-06-09). **This is the addressable universe** - they have disclosed financials, a state of incorporation, and a real business address.
## 2. The best data source: SEC EDGAR (free, public, bulk-OK)
### Step 1 - the master list of OTC issuers (one file)
```
https://www.sec.gov/files/company_tickers_exchange.json
```
Fields: `cik, name, ticker, exchange`. Filter `exchange in ("OTC", None)` -> ~2,771 rows. (Use `company_tickers.json` if you also want major-exchange names.)
### Step 2 - per-company detail (one JSON per CIK)
```
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK{cik:010d}.json
```
Returns, per issuer (verified live):
- `name`, `tickers`, `exchanges`, `formerNames`
- **`stateOfIncorporation`** + `stateOfIncorporationDescription` <- the reincorporation hook
- **`addresses.business`** and `addresses.mailing` (street, city, state, zip) <- mailing/calling
- **`phone`** <- cold-call / verify
- `sic` + `sicDescription` (industry segmentation), `entityType`, `ein`, `website` (often empty), `investorWebsite`
- full filing history (so you can score "actively filing" vs delinquent)
No email field exists in EDGAR. (Confirmed: submissions JSON top-level keys include phone/website/addresses but no email.)
### Access rules (SEC "Fair Access" policy - sec.gov/os/accessing-edgar-data)
- Max **10 requests/second** total.
- Send a `User-Agent` header that identifies you with a contact, e.g. `User-Agent: Performance West <contact@performancewest.net>`.
- "Download only what you need." Pulling ~2,771 submissions JSONs at ~6/sec = under 8 minutes, well within policy.
## 3. What fraction is incorporated where (the reincorporation fit)
Live sample of OTC + None issuers, n=400 (random, seed-fixed):
| Bucket | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|
| **US-domestic incorporation** | 139 | **35%** |
| Foreign incorporation (ADRs, Alberta=A1, China=E9, etc.) | ~200 | ~50% |
| Blank/unknown state | 62 | ~15% |
Within the **US-domestic** subset:
- **Nevada: 53, Delaware: 49 -> DE+NV = 73% of US-domestic OTC issuers.**
- Texas: only **1** (out of 139) -> almost nobody is in Texas yet = lots of room to pitch the move.
- Others: FL 6, WY 5, MD 7, plus a long tail.
**Addressable lead math:** ~2,771 OTC/None SEC filers x ~35% US-domestic = **~970 US-domestic OTC issuers**, of which ~73% (~710) are DE/NV. These ~700-970 are the core list for a reincorporation / registered-agent / annual-report / franchise-tax / foreign-qualification campaign. (Foreign ADRs like Lindt, BMW, Siemens, Deutsche Telekom are the bulk of the "OTC" list and are NOT good leads - they can't redomesticate to Texas - so always filter to US states before mailing.)
## 4. Texas reincorporation - is the hook real?
Yes, early but real. EDGAR full-text search (`efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index`) hits:
- "reincorporate in Texas": **48 filings**
- "redomesticate to Texas": **43 filings**
- "convert to a Texas corporation": **17 filings**
Drivers worth naming in copy (all public/verifiable): companies (Tesla, others) reincorporating out of Delaware after the 2024 Delaware Chancery rulings; the **Texas Business Court** (specialized business-dispute court, operational Sept 1, 2024); the **Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE)**, SEC-registered/announced 2024-2025; and Texas's no-corporate-income-tax positioning. The legal mechanic is a **conversion / domestication** under the **Texas Business Organizations Code (TBOC) Ch. 10, Subchapter C** (a foreign entity converts/domesticates to a Texas entity). That maps directly onto our existing corporate services.
## 5. Which of OUR services fit this list
From `api/src/service-catalog.ts` (corporate vertical), these all fit OTC microcap issuers:
- **Reincorporation / conversion / domestication to Texas** (NEW - we'd add a slug; closest existing primitives are `corp-formation` + `entity-dissolution`, but a true TBOC Ch. 10 conversion is a distinct service worth its own SKU).
- `foreign-qualification-single` / `-multi` (Certificate of Authority - if they keep DE/NV charter but operate in TX/other states).
- `registered-agent` (1-year) - every reincorporated/qualified entity needs one; recurring revenue.
- `annual-report-filing` (Annual Report / Franchise Tax) - TX franchise tax / public information report, DE franchise tax, NV annual list. Recurring, low-friction entry product.
- `entity-dissolution` - for shells winding down.
- `corp-formation` / `llc-formation` - for newcos / restructurings.
Cross-sell: many OTC microcaps are also FCC 499 filers (telecom shells) or have healthcare/trucking subs - but keep the OTC campaign in the **corporate** lane.
## 6. Legality
### Scraping
- **EDGAR: explicitly allowed** to bulk-download (fair-access policy, 10 req/sec, declared User-Agent). No login. This is the path.
- **OTCMarkets.com: their ToS prohibits scraping/automated access**; they sell the data as a commercial feed. No need to touch it - EDGAR has everything we need except email.
### CAN-SPAM (cold B2B email to these issuers)
Cold-emailing US businesses is legal - **no prior opt-in required** in the US (unlike GDPR/CASL). Requirements for each commercial email:
1. **Accurate header info** - real "From", reply-to, routing (no spoofing).
2. **Non-deceptive subject line.**
3. **Identify it as an ad** if it is one (a clear commercial-message identifier; can be contextual).
4. **Valid physical postal address** of Performance West in the footer (we already have this in our footers).
5. **Clear opt-out / unsubscribe** mechanism, and **honor opt-outs within 10 business days**; keep them off the list permanently.
6. Don't email harvested-then-sold lists in a way that violates the harvesting prohibition (EDGAR-derived contact data + our own enrichment is fine; we are not buying a harvested list).
Our existing warmup/listmonk stack already enforces 4 + 5 (footer address, unsubscribe, suppression). The corporate stream would reuse that.
### CASL / GDPR caveat
**Filter to US-domestic issuers anyway** (which we want to do for the reincorporation fit). That also sidesteps Canada (CASL requires consent - and A1=Alberta is the single biggest foreign code in our sample) and EU (GDPR). Mailing only US entities keeps us cleanly under CAN-SPAM.
## 7. The email gap - how to actually reach them
EDGAR gives **phone + business/mailing address + sometimes a website**, not email. Options, cheapest-first:
1. **Enrich from the company website / IR page** (EDGAR `website`/`investorWebsite` when present; else resolve via the company name). Scrape the public IR/contact email. ~Free, our own enrichment.
2. **Direct mail + cold call** the EDGAR-disclosed address/phone (100% coverage in our sample - every issuer had a business address; 119/120 had a phone). Higher-touch, but matches a higher-ticket corporate sale.
3. **Paid enrichment** (transfer-agent / IR-contact databases) only if email volume matters more than cost.
For a *reincorporation* pitch (a 4-5 figure decision), a tighter, partly direct-mail/call motion on the ~700 DE/NV US-domestic issuers likely beats a blast - protects our warmed IPs too.
## 8. Suggested next steps (if we proceed)
1. Build `scripts/otc_lead_pull.py`: pull `company_tickers_exchange.json` -> filter `exchange in (OTC, None)` -> fetch each `submissions/CIK*.json` at <=6 req/sec with our User-Agent -> write a CSV: `cik, name, ticker, state_of_incorporation, sic, sic_desc, business_street/city/state/zip, mailing_*, phone, website, entity_type, last_filing_date`. Filter to US states.
2. Segment: (a) DE/NV US-domestic = "reincorporate to Texas / save on franchise tax" hook; (b) all US-domestic = registered-agent + annual-report recurring; (c) actively-filing only (drop long-delinquent shells).
3. Enrichment pass for emails (website/IR scrape); fall back to direct-mail/call for the rest.
4. Stand up a **corporate** listmonk list + warmup segment mirroring the HC/trucking setup (footer address, unsubscribe, suppression, deliverability guards). Reuse `_email_exclusions.py`.
5. Draft source-grounded copy: name the real, verifiable hooks (TBOC Ch.10 conversion, Texas Business Court, TXSE, DE franchise-tax burden) - no fabricated claims, link to the gov/court sources so the recipient can verify.
## Sources (all pulled/verified 2026-06-09)
- `https://www.sec.gov/files/company_tickers_exchange.json` (OTC=2,544; None=227)
- `https://www.sec.gov/files/company_tickers.json` (10,365 ticker'd filers)
- `https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK{cik}.json` (per-issuer state of incorp, address, phone, sic; n=400 + n=120 samples)
- SEC Fair-Access policy: `https://www.sec.gov/os/accessing-edgar-data` ("no more than 10 requests per second", declare User-Agent)
- EDGAR full-text search: `https://efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index` (Texas reincorporation filing counts)
- Texas Business Organizations Code Ch. 10 Subch. C (conversion/domestication); Texas Business Court (eff. 2024-09-01); Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE), 2024-2025.