For search funds, sponsors, roll-up teams, and M&A advisors
Map a fragmented niche across a region, then reach the owners.
Search a niche across up to 250 cities in one run, within your plan's daily city budget and lead balance, with up to about 300 businesses per city. Each row carries review count, rating, claimed status, and the owner's name where we can identify one, with every email we find verified and each phone checked for line type.
100 verified leads free · no credit card · the API on every plan
Built for Search funds and ETA searchers · Independent sponsors · PE add-on and roll-up teams · Holding companies · Strategic acquirers · Business brokers and M&A advisors
| Business | City | Owner | Reviews | Rating | Claimed | Phone 1 | Email 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KFKestrelline Fire Protection | Charlotte | — | 187 | 4.8 | (704) 555-0114VoIP | [email protected]safe | |
| OSOakmere Sprinkler & Alarm | Raleigh | Samuel Adeyemi | 64 | 4.9 | (919) 555-0162Landline | [email protected]safe | |
| HDHarlan & Daughters Fire Safety | Greensboro | Carol Harlan | 41 | 5.0 | (336) 555-0139Mobile | [email protected]safe | |
| RFRidgefall Fire Systems | Columbia | — | 23 | 4.6 | (803) 555-0171Landline | [email protected]risky | |
| NSNorthpine Suppression Co. | Wilmington | — | 17 | 4.5 | (910) 555-0183VoIP | — | |
| TETidewell Extinguisher Service | Charleston | — | 9 | 4.7 | (843) 555-0126Mobile | — |
Six rows from a bulk search for fire protection services across 40 cities in the Carolinas, sorted by reviews. Sample rows: fictional businesses, reserved 555 numbers.
Off-market means building the owner list yourself.
Listed deals come with a crowd
A listed business arrives with a teaser, a CIM, and a process designed to bring every interested buyer to the table. Proprietary deal flow means talking to owners before anyone runs a process, and that starts with knowing who they are.
Mapping a niche by hand eats the search
Building the universe for one thesis means panning Google Maps city by city, pasting rows into a sheet, and deduplicating the same shop found under three keywords. Then comes the owner hunt through state filings, which often name a registered agent instead of the person who runs the business.
Generic outreach gets lost in the pile
Owners in consolidating trades hear from would-be buyers regularly, and a "Dear business owner" note to an info@ inbox reads like the rest, if a staffer passes it along at all. And a note that lands with the wrong staffer can start talk in the shop before the owner has decided anything.
From a thesis to a long list to a first conversation.
- 01
Turn the thesis into one bulk search
Enter the trade the way Google lists it, such as "fire protection service" or "HVAC contractor," and the cities in your region: Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Columbia, and the towns around them. One bulk search covers up to 250 cities, within your plan's daily city budget and as many as your lead balance can cover, up to about 300 businesses per city, with duplicates across cities removed. The run finishes in the background, typically in minutes for one city and longer for a whole region.
- 02
Cover dense metros with suburbs and variants
In a big metro a dense trade runs past 300 listings, so add the suburbs (Plano, Frisco, McKinney, and Irving around Dallas) and run variants like "air conditioning contractor" and "heating contractor." Every lead from every search also lands in your All leads library, and a variant run as its own search is charged for everything it delivers, including businesses the first search found.
- 03
Cut the long list to a short list
Sort by Business to group names that repeat across cities, which usually marks a chain, a franchise, or a multi-branch independent, and check which before a "does not contain" rule drops it. Filter on reviews, rating, claimed status, and owner name, and save the result as a view you can apply to every new search. The Excel download carries the crawled page text, where lines like "family-owned" or "founded in" are there to read, not to filter on.
- 04
Send it where you track deals
Export to Close, where each business becomes a Lead with the owner, Phone 1, and Email 1 on its Contact, or to a new Google Sheet where you add your own columns for stage and notes. Re-exports to Close, or back into that sheet, update the same records instead of duplicating them, and your own Sheets columns are left alone.
- 05
Refresh the map each quarter
Re-run the search by hand each quarter to see the market as it stands now; every run is a fresh search, charged per lead delivered, and it re-delivers businesses you already have. To feed a sourcing pipeline, the REST API and MCP server search one city per call, and either can enrich a target list you already hold by website domain.
Public signals, read as proxies, not financials.
Review count and rating, read as proxies
Review volume is a rough signal of how established and busy a business is, and rating of how customers feel about the work, though a shop that asks every customer for a review can outscore a bigger one that doesn't. Neither is revenue, and B2B trades like fire protection tend to collect fewer reviews than a residential plumber, so set the floor by trade.
A name instead of "Dear business owner"
We read the business's own website for a clearly named owner, founder, president, or principal. That gives you the owner's name where we can identify one: a name only, with no title, personal email, or phone, on only a fraction of rows. A founder named on an About page may have sold since, so confirm ownership on the first call.
Claimed status, read with the review record
Claimed shows whether someone has verified the Google Business Profile: yes, no, or unknown. It doesn't say who or how recently, so treat it as a light signal, not proof that anyone is still running the business. An unclaimed profile with a thin review record may be very small or quiet, so look before you write.
The About page, in your Excel download
We crawl the homepage and a few inner pages, including an about or team page when the site has one, and that page is normally among the three whose text the Excel download carries. That is where lines like "family-owned," "second generation," or "founded in" turn up, worth a sentence in your note. Page text can be read and exported, not filtered.
A mobile is the likeliest owner line
We keep up to three numbers per business, the listing's plus any on the website, and check each for line type and carrier. A mobile is the number most likely to reach the owner, while VoIP numbers are often call tracking or a dispatch desk, so a call there tends to reach the office rather than the principal.
Verified emails, mostly shared inboxes
We take up to three emails per business, only from its own website and never guessed from a pattern. Every email we find is verified and labeled safe, risky, invalid, or unknown, and invalid ones stay visible, marked red, so you can exclude them. Most are shared inboxes like info@ or office@, which means a staffer may open your note first; write it so that is fine.
Three saved views that cut a long list to a short one.
Filters you can build in a minute and save as a view, then apply to any search or to your whole lead library.
Established, owner-named, safe email
- where Reviews ≥ 50
- and Rating ≥ 4.5
- and Owner is not empty
- and Email 1 Status is Safe
Your first wave: a customer track record, read through review count and rating, a named principal, and an address the verifier confirmed. Lower the review floor for B2B trades, which collect fewer reviews.
Mobile number, claimed listing
- where Phone 1 Type is Mobile
- and Claimed is yes
- and Reviews ≥ 25
Rows where a call is the natural first touch: a main number that is a mobile, the line most likely to reach the owner, on a claimed listing. Add "Owner is not empty" to ask for the owner by name, and save a second view on Phone 2 Type for mobiles listed second.
No website, phone-first
- where Website is empty
- and Reviews ≥ 20
- and Claimed is yes
Listings with a real review record, a claimed profile, and no website, which email-first sourcing never reaches. These rows carry no crawled emails and almost never an owner name, so the phone is the approach.
Fragmented niches, and the people who hear about exits.
Residential service trades
Maintenance plans and repeat service calls are why these trades sit at the center of home-services roll-ups, so assume their owners have heard from buyers before. Look past the biggest review counts, which can be franchise locations or businesses a platform already owns, to the owner-named independents below them.
- HVAC contractor
- Plumber
- Electrician
- Pest control service
- Pool cleaning service
- Septic system service
- Lawn care service
- Garage door supplier
Commercial and code-driven services
Code-required inspections, alarm monitoring, and service contracts bring the same commercial customers back on a schedule, and many operators are small and regional. Commercial customers leave fewer Google reviews, so drop the review floor here and lean on website, claimed status, and owner name.
- Fire protection service
- Fire protection system supplier
- Fire alarm supplier
- Security system installation service
- Elevator service
- Janitorial service
Professional firms with recurring clients
Accounting practices, insurance agencies, and IT providers serve the same clients year after year, and their websites tend to name the principals, which is where our owner lookup reads. Discretion matters more than usual here: clients and staff should not hear about a sale before the owner decides to talk.
- Accounting firm
- Bookkeeping service
- Tax preparation service
- Insurance agency
- Computer support and services
- Payroll service
Intermediaries who hear about exits early
An owner's CPA, attorney, or financial planner is often among the first to hear that a sale is on the owner's mind, and a business broker is a common next call. Buyers can ask to join a broker's buyer list with a one-page buy box; brokers and advisors can map the same categories as a referral network.
- Business broker
- Certified public accountant
- Estate planning attorney
- Business attorney
- Financial planner
Three service markets, read for deal sourcing.
Real counts from markets we have already searched, the same figures our market pages publish.
11 pool cleaning services
- No website
- 4 of 11
- Unclaimed listing
- 1 of 11
- Average rating
- 4.9
- Reviews
- 144
- Mobile 100%
A small market of route businesses that look owner-run: the phones here are mobiles, so a call most likely reaches the person who would sell. Review counts stay low even at the top, so a floor borrowed from HVAC would all but empty this list; add the other Oahu towns to size the niche.
See the marketAustin, TX90 plumbers
- No website
- 14 of 90
- Unclaimed listing
- 12 of 90
- Average rating
- 4.7
- Reviews
- 61,297
- Mobile 19%
- Landline 30%
- VoIP 47%
- Toll-free 5%
Most of the review volume here sits with a small group of large operators, so the total says little about a typical shop; set your review floor from the middle of the list, not the top. VoIP is the most common line type, often a sign of dispatch or call tracking, so the owner-named rows with a mobile are the ones to call first.
See the marketAustin, TX65 landscapers
- No website
- 7 of 65
- Unclaimed listing
- 8 of 65
- Average rating
- 4.6
- Reviews
- 3,663
- Mobile 42%
- Landline 34%
- VoIP 23%
- Toll-free 2%
Mobile is the most common line type here, which fits owner-operators who answer their own phones, so a call can be the first touch. Listings under this category run from lawn care to design-build, so if your thesis is commercial grounds maintenance, run "commercial landscaping" as a variant.
See the marketCounted from our own corpus on August 19, 2026 · distinct businesses, deduplicated on Google’s place identifier · counts only, never contact details.
A first note that respects the owner's inbox.
Hi {Owner},
I'm [Your name] with [Your company]. [One plain sentence on who you are and the kind of business you want to own or represent.]
I've been looking closely at companies like yours around {City}, and {Business} stood out, in part for the {Reviews} reviews your customers have left on Google.
I'm not asking for numbers or a decision. If you've ever thought about the long-term plan for {Business}, even loosely, I'd welcome a confidential 20-minute call at a time that suits you. You'd hear what I'm looking for, and I'd learn how you think about the business.
If it's not something you'd consider, a one-word reply is plenty and I won't write again.
[Your name] [Your company] · [Your phone] [Your postal address]
Why it works
- Keep "acquisition" out of the subject: most emails we find are shared inboxes, so a staffer may read it first. If {Owner} is blank, make the subject "For the owner of {Business}" and drop the greeting line, so the note opens with who you are; otherwise trim {Owner} to a first name.
- Swap the review line for a detail from their About page text, in your Excel download, when it says more. Use the review line only on a view with a review floor, so it never reads "3 reviews."
- Send from a named person's own address, a few a day, and follow up by calling the mobile where there is one. Brokers and advisors: replace the middle paragraph with what you offer an owner weighing a sale.
Before you send
CAN-SPAM covers commercial email to businesses, and calls and texts can fall under the TCPA and federal and state do-not-call rules, which are stricter for mobile numbers. If you are paid on a completed sale, state licensing rules for business brokers and securities broker-dealer rules may apply too. LeadMarina doesn't scrub numbers against do-not-call lists or certify compliance, so check the rules that apply to you before you send.
Words in {braces} are columns in your export; words in [brackets] are yours to fill in.
Send them where you already work.
Download a CSV or Excel file, or send leads straight to the tools below. Re-exports to a CRM update the records already there instead of duplicating them.
Frequently asked questions
Can I filter targets by revenue, EBITDA, or employee count?
No. LeadMarina has no financials, headcount, or founding dates, and no field stands in for them. Review count is a rough proxy for how established and busy a business is, nothing more. LeadMarina finds the universe and the public signals to qualify it; revenue, SDE, and margins come from the conversation.
Does it show which owners are ready to sell or near retirement?
No. There is no for-sale status, succession flag, or owner age in the data, and we don't infer one. The About page text in your Excel download sometimes says "family-owned" or when the business started, which you can read and use in a note. Timing is something you learn by asking.
Will one search give me every HVAC company in my region?
No. Each city returns up to about 300 businesses from Google business listings data, one bulk search covers up to 250 cities, within your plan's daily city budget and as many as your lead balance can cover, and a business with no Google listing won't appear at all. In big metros, add suburbs and keyword variants like "air conditioning contractor," and expect a variant run as its own search to charge for businesses an earlier search already found. Treat the result as a long list, not a census.
Can I exclude franchises and companies a platform already owns?
Not with a single filter, because there is no ownership or franchise field. A name that repeats across cities in a bulk search usually marks a chain, a franchise, or a multi-branch operator: sort by Business to group the repeats, then add "Business does not contain" rules for the names you want out. Platforms often keep an acquired shop's local name, so whether an independent-looking business already belongs to one is something to check on its website or ask on the first call.
Can I enrich a target list I already have?
Yes, over the REST API or the MCP server: send website domains, 10 per request and up to 500 a day, at 1 lead each. Each domain is crawled and its contacts verified like any other lead, but without a Google rating, review count, or claimed status. There is no CSV upload for enrichment in the dashboard.
Can my whole deal team work from one account, and does it connect to our CRM?
It is one login per account, with no team seats or shared workspaces. Exports go natively to Close, Google Sheets, and GoHighLevel, and re-exports to Close, GoHighLevel, or a sheet LeadMarina created update existing records in place. Any other CRM, including the deal-management platforms PE teams use, can usually import the CSV or Excel export.
- Bookkeepers and accounting firmsContractors, restaurants, and practices across your metro, with verified emails, phones checked for line type, and owner names where we can identify one.
- Freight brokers and 3PLsSearch the towns along a lane for manufacturers, distributors, sawmills, and food processors, with every email we find verified and each phone checked for line type.
- B2B and SaaS sales teamsTerritory lists by vertical and city, with every email we find verified and each phone checked for line type, delivered to Close, Google Sheets, or your stack over the API.
Map your first niche on the free plan.
Run your thesis in one city you know well, count the owner names and mobile numbers it turns up, and check the rows against the operators you already know.
100 verified leads free · no credit card