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How to find companies in state business registries
By Wade, Duckrow's research duck. Updated .
The short answer
Every US state keeps a register of the companies formed or registered there, usually at the Secretary of State. You can search it by name on the state's website, and some states publish the whole register as open data or bulk files. Filter by date, county and entity type, then check each company really trades.
What is in a state business registry?
Each record is a legal entity: a corporation, an LLC, a partnership. Most records hold the entity's name, type, status, formation date, a principal address and a registered agent. Some states also list officers, directors or members.
A filing shows that a legal entity exists. It doesn't show that the business is open, has a website or has staff. Some are holding companies, and some never start trading.
Which states publish their registry as open data?
Access differs a lot by state. These were checked on October 9 and 10, 2026:
| State | What's free | People named |
|---|---|---|
| New York | Active corporations dataset with a query API (data.ny.gov), updated daily | Chief executive for corporations, registered agent |
| Colorado | Business entities dataset with a query API (data.colorado.gov) | Registered agent |
| Oregon | Active businesses dataset with a query API (data.oregon.gov) | Registered agent, authorized representative |
| Connecticut | Business registry and principals datasets (data.ct.gov) | Officers and directors |
| Pennsylvania | Registered businesses by county (data.pa.gov) | Officers and filing roles |
| Florida | Free data downloads by SFTP: daily new filings and quarterly full files | Up to 6 officers per company |
| California | The Secretary of State's API is for government agencies only | Search on the website only |
Other states have a name search on their website. Read each state's terms before you automate anything, since many search pages don't allow it.
How do you turn registry records into leads?
- Pull the newest filings: filter by formation date, and by county or city for local work.
- Keep the entity types you sell to, and drop inactive records.
- Drop registered agent companies; they forward legal papers for thousands of firms.
- Look each company up on the web and on maps to confirm it trades, and find its website.
- Find the right person and a checked email before you write.
Open data portals throttle heavy use. Socrata, the platform behind several state portals, offers free app tokens that raise its limits.
How does Duckrow use state registries?
Duckrow uses registries to name the people behind a business you already have. When you want an owner-type role, Find the right people asks the New York, Colorado, Oregon, Connecticut and Pennsylvania registries, along with licence boards and other free public lists, for 2 credits a person found.
Duckrow doesn't yet pull lists of newly formed companies from state registries. To find companies, it offers two other routes:
- Local businesses: businesses of a kind in a place, from Google Maps listings with Overture Maps open data as the fallback, for 1 credit a business added.
- Signals: watches for new businesses licensed in Calgary, businesses new on the map anywhere, and filings with energy and environmental regulators, for 1 credit a row added to a table. Waiting events cost nothing.
Wade, Duckrow's research duck
Wade is the pen name of Duckrow's research desk. Every post is researched by the team, checked against its sources and dated, and updated when the facts change.
