I didn't set out to build a product with thousands of users.
I was just trying to solve a problem for myself.
As a developer, one of the hardest parts of freelancing isn't always building the website. Sometimes, it's finding the businesses that actually need one.
There are thousands of businesses on Google Maps.
Restaurants. Barbershops. Gyms. Law firms. Hotels. Salons. Repair shops. Real estate businesses. Small companies of every kind.
And a lot of them don't have websites.
That sounded like an opportunity.
So I built a small tool for myself.
It started as a simple scraper
The first version of GMapLeads was nowhere near what it is today.
The idea was simple:
Search Google Maps for businesses in a particular niche and location, find the ones without websites, and give me their contact information.
Instead of spending hours manually searching Google Maps, opening listings, checking whether they had websites, copying phone numbers, and repeating the process, I wanted the computer to do the boring part.
So I built it.
The first version ran on my own VPS and delivered leads to Telegram.
I could tell it what kind of businesses I wanted and where I wanted to find them, and it would start sending me potential prospects.
At the time, I wasn't thinking about users.
I wasn't thinking about subscriptions.
I wasn't thinking about building a SaaS.
I just wanted a tool that could help me find clients.
And it worked.
Then I realized other developers had the same problem
Once I started using it, I began thinking:
"I'm probably not the only developer who needs this."
There are countless freelancers and agencies trying to sell websites, apps, marketing, SEO, and other digital services.
The problem isn't always finding businesses.
It's finding the businesses that actually have a reason to talk to you.
A business that already has a good website probably isn't your easiest prospect for a website project.
But a business with a Google Maps listing, a phone number, customers, and no website?
That's a much more interesting lead.
So I started sharing the tool.
And people started asking to use it.
From my personal script to GMapLeads
That's when the project started changing.
What began as a personal tool slowly became an actual product.
I had to think about things I never needed to think about when it was just running for me.
User accounts.
Lead limits.
Searches.
Duplicate prevention.
Automated rescans.
Infrastructure.
Payments.
Telegram delivery.
And, most importantly, making the experience simple enough that someone who didn't build the system could use it immediately.
The goal became:
Find a niche. Pick a location. Get businesses that don't have websites.
No complicated dashboard.
No giant spreadsheet.
No spending hours manually searching Google Maps.
Just leads.
Today, GMapLeads scans Google Maps for businesses without websites and delivers the information directly through Telegram. Each lead can include the business name, category, phone number, address, and listing information. Businesses that already have websites are filtered out before they reach the user.
Then something unexpected happened
The numbers started moving.
More people started signing up.
Then more.
Then even more.
At some point, I realized this wasn't just a little tool I built for myself anymore.
People were actually using it.
Today, GMapLeads has crossed 10,000 users.
That's still crazy to think about.
10,000+ people have used something that started as a small personal tool running on my own infrastructure.
And what's even more interesting isn't just the number.
It's what people are doing with it.
People are using it to find real opportunities
The original reason I built GMapLeads was to help myself find potential clients.
Now other people are using it for the same reason.
Developers use it to find businesses they can pitch websites to.
Agencies use it to discover prospects.
Freelancers use it to build their outreach lists.
People are taking these leads and turning them into conversations.
And some users have even told me they've gotten jobs from leads they found through GMapLeads.
That part means more to me than the 10,000-user milestone.
Because it means the product isn't just producing numbers in a database.
It's helping someone find an opportunity they probably wouldn't have found otherwise.
Someone searches for restaurants in a city.
Another person searches for gyms.
Someone else looks for salons.
They find businesses that don't have websites, reach out, make an offer, and potentially turn that lead into a client.
That's the entire point.
Building for users changed the way I think about products
One of the biggest lessons I've learned from GMapLeads is that you don't always need to start with a huge idea.
You can start with a problem you personally have.
Build the smallest thing that solves it.
Use it.
Then let other people use it.
Listen to what they complain about.
Watch what they actually do.
And keep improving.
GMapLeads didn't become what it is today because I had everything figured out from day one.
It evolved.
The first version solved my problem.
The next version solved the problem for a few other people.
Then more people started using it.
And eventually, I had to build the infrastructure and product around the demand.
That's a completely different experience from building something nobody asked for and hoping people eventually discover it.
What I'm building now
GMapLeads is still evolving.
The core idea hasn't changed:
There are businesses everywhere that need digital services.
The hard part is finding them.
GMapLeads is meant to make that process easier.
Today, users can search for a niche and location, receive qualified no-website leads through Telegram, and have their searches automatically rescanned so they continue discovering new opportunities. The current free tier provides 30 alerts, while the subscription tier removes the monthly cap.
And I'm still improving it.
Because 10,000 users isn't the finish line.
It's proof that the problem is real.
From one developer's problem to thousands of users
If there's one thing I'll take away from building GMapLeads, it's this:
Don't underestimate the small tools you build for yourself.
That little script you build because you're tired of doing something manually might be useful to hundreds of other people.
Maybe thousands.
You don't know until you put it in front of people.
GMapLeads started because I wanted an easier way to find businesses without websites.
It became a product because other people wanted the same thing.
And now, thousands of people are using it to find potential clients and opportunities.
That's probably my favorite part of the whole story.
I didn't start by trying to build a 10,000-user startup.
I started by solving my own problem.
Everything else came after.
GMapLeads started as a tool I built for myself.
Now it's a tool thousands of people use to find their next opportunity.
And we're just getting started.
Try GMapLeads
If you're a developer, freelancer, or agency looking for businesses that need a website, you can try GMapLeads yourself.
Find businesses without websites on Google Maps and turn them into potential clients.
Try GMapLeads: https://gmapleads.0xdaniiel.space/
If you enjoyed the story or want to follow along as I continue building GMapLeads and other products, you can find me on X:
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Thanks for reading!
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