LeadCompass: AI-Powered Lead Gen SaaS - My Journey from Idea to Launch

Hey Indie Hackers! 👋

I'm excited to share LeadCompass - a tool I built to solve my own problem: finding local business leads without paying $500+/month for enterprise tools.

🎯 What is LeadCompass?

It's a Google Maps scraper + AI email finder + CRM rolled into one affordable platform. You search for businesses by niche and location, and get back enriched leads with emails, phones, social profiles, and website data.

Example: Search "coffee shops in Austin, TX" → Get 50+ leads with verified contact info in seconds.

💡 The Problem I Was Solving

I was freelancing and needed to find local clients. My options were:

❌ Manual Google Maps searches (1 hour = 10 leads)

❌ Buy from data brokers ($1,000-$2,000/month)

❌ Use enterprise tools (Apollo.io, ZoomInfo = $500+/month per seat)

❌ Hire a VA ($15/hr, inconsistent quality)

None of these made sense for a solopreneur or small team. I wanted something affordable, automated, and accurate.

🛠️ The Build

• Tech Stack:

• Next.js 15 (App Router) + React 19

• MongoDB + Mongoose

• Stripe for payments (credit-based billing)

• Sanity CMS for SEO blog

• OpenAI/DeepSeek for email extraction

• Resend for transactional emails

• Google Maps API for business data

• Time to MVP: ~6 weeks (nights & weekends)

Key Features:

• ✅ Search businesses by niche + location

• ✅ AI extracts emails from websites automatically

• ✅ Built-in CRM (groups, tags, filters, bulk actions)

• ✅ Credit ledger system (like Twilio/AWS)

• ✅ Webhook API for automation

• ✅ SEO blog with Sanity CMS

• ✅ 20 free trial credits

💰 Pricing Strategy

I went credit-based instead of per-seat:

Subscriptions:

• Starter: $17/mo → 250 credits ($0.068/lead)

• Professional: $47/mo → 1,000 credits ($0.047/lead) ⭐

• Enterprise: $97/mo → 3,000 credits ($0.032/lead)

One-Time Packs:

• $12 → 100 credits

• $49 → 500 credits

• $89 → 1,000 credits

Why credits?

• More predictable than "unlimited" tiers

• Users understand exactly what they're paying for

• Credits never expire (they accumulate with subscriptions)

• Easier to upsell power users

🎨 Design Decisions

1. Credit Ledger vs. Monthly Limits

Initially, I had monthly limits that reset. Users HATED losing unused credits. I rebuilt the entire billing system with a professional ledger that tracks every transaction. Credits now accumulate - huge UX win.

2. Built-in CRM Instead of Export-Only

Most scrapers just give you a CSV. I added groups, tags, statuses, priorities - basically a lightweight CRM. Users can manage their entire lead lifecycle without Notion/Airtable.

3. AI Email Extraction

Finding emails is the hardest part. I integrated DeepSeek (cheap) and OpenAI (accurate) to scrape websites and extract contact info. Works ~70% of the time.

4. SEO Blog = Free Marketing

Built a headless blog with Sanity CMS. I can write "How to find X leads in Y city" posts that rank on Google and drive organic signups. Even added a webhook API so I can automate posting with AI.

📊 Current Status

✅ Product is live and working

✅ Stripe integration complete

✅ 20 free trial credits for new users

✅ Blog ready for content marketing

⏳ First paying customers (working on it!)

⏳ SEO content strategy

MRR Goal: $2,000 by Q1 2026

🧠 Lessons Learned

1. Don't Overthink Pricing

I spent 2 weeks on pricing models. Just ship something, get feedback, iterate. I've already changed prices 3x based on early user testing.

2. Credit Systems Are Tricky

Building a proper ledger with idempotency, refunds, and audit trails took longer than expected. But it's worth it - users trust transparent billing.

3. Stripe Webhooks = Your Friend

Initially, I was granting credits in checkout.session.completed only. Big mistake. Also handle invoice.payment_succeeded for recurring billing. Test EVERYTHING with Stripe CLI.

4. SEO Blog Is a Moat

Every competitor just has a landing page. I built a CMS so I can pump out "best leads for X industry" content. Long-term traffic play.

5. AI APIs Are Dirt Cheap

DeepSeek costs $0.14 per 1M tokens. I can extract 1,000 emails for ~$2. OpenAI is 10x more but still reasonable. Don't sleep on AI for automation.

🎯 What's Next?

Short-term (Next 30 days):

• Launch on Product Hunt

• Write 10 SEO blog posts

• Add LinkedIn profile enrichment

• Build affiliate program (20% recurring)

• Medium-term (Q1 2025):

• API access for developers

• Zapier integration

• Bulk upload (CSV → enrichment)

• Team accounts

Long-term:

• Chrome extension for on-the-fly scraping

• Mobile app for sales teams

• White-label version for agencies

💬 Ask Me Anything!

I'm happy to share:

• Tech stack decisions

• Stripe webhook setup

• AI email extraction logic

• Credit ledger architecture

• SEO strategy

• Anything else!

Try it: LeadCompass.app

Would love your feedback, especially from:

🎯 Sales/marketing folks who do outreach

💼 Agency owners who buy leads

🛠️ Indie hackers building SaaS

What would make this a must-have tool for you?

TL;DR: Built a $17/mo alternative to $500/mo lead gen tools. Google Maps scraper + AI email finder + CRM. Credit-based pricing, no subscriptions required. Looking for early users and feedback!

🔗 Leadcompass.app

P.S. - The whole thing is 100% bootstrapped. No funding, no co-founder, just me and a lot of coffee ☕

Follow-up questions I expect (and answers):

Q: How do you handle rate limits from Google Maps?

A: I use the official Places API with proper pagination and caching. Staying well within ToS.

Q: Isn't email scraping legally sketchy?

A: We only collect publicly available data (like their website contact page). Same as ZoomInfo, Apollo, etc. Users must comply with CAN-SPAM/GDPR for outreach.

Q: What's your customer acquisition strategy?

A: SEO blog posts, Product Hunt launch, Reddit (r/sales, r/entrepreneur), LinkedIn content, and word-of-mouth.

Q: How accurate is the AI email extraction?

A: ~70% success rate. DeepSeek is cheaper but less accurate. OpenAI is pricier but hits 80%+. I let users choose (or auto-fallback).

Q: Monthly burn rate?

A: ~$50/mo (hosting, APIs, email service). Super lean. Aiming for profitability at 10 customers.