# The Lead Hunter

Type a business and a city, and a few minutes later you have a spreadsheet of local businesses with phone numbers, websites and ratings, free and on your own computer.

## What you get

**You sell to local businesses. Copying names and numbers from Google Maps by hand takes hours.**

The Lead Hunter does it for you.

Tell it what you want, like "dentists in Denver CO".

It searches Google Maps. A few minutes later you have a spreadsheet:

- Name
- Phone
- Website
- Address
- Rating and review count

**Free. No keys. No accounts. Nothing to pay. About 20 minutes.**

## One thing to know

**It works by scraping Google Maps, which Google's terms don't allow. Keep your searches small.**

Emails are a rare bonus. It only finds one when the business shows it on its own website. Rely on the phone and website columns.

Any emails you collect fall under email rules like CAN-SPAM and GDPR.

It runs on your own computer, inside Docker. Docker is a free app that runs it in the background.

## Who this is for

You sell to local businesses. Agencies, freelancers, web designers, suppliers, service providers.

## What you need

- Docker Desktop, installed and open, showing "running" (free download from docker.com)
- git and Python 3 (already on most Macs)
- Claude Code, if you want it to run the steps for you. Or paste the commands into a terminal yourself.

## Set it up

Open Claude Code (or a terminal, the app where you type commands).

### Step 1: Get the kit

It downloads the kit and moves into its folder.

```
git clone https://github.com/Mahanaicoach/google-maps-scraper-kit.git
cd google-maps-scraper-kit
```

### Step 2: Apply the one-line fix

The kit ships with an old version that gets stuck. Open `docker-compose.yml`. Change `v1.15.0` to `v1.18.1`. Save.

Or ask Claude Code: "change the image version in docker-compose.yml from v1.15.0 to v1.18.1".

### Step 3: Start the scraper

The first start downloads about 2.4 GB. Give it a couple of minutes.

```
docker compose up -d
```

## Use it

Swap in your own business type and city:

```
python3 scripts/scrape.py "dentists in Denver CO" --city "Denver, CO" --depth 1 --max-time 300 --out denver.csv
```

If it asks about social media links, answer no.

A few minutes later `denver.csv` is in the kit folder. It looks like this:

```
Name                       Phone             Rating / reviews
Wynkoop Dentistry          +1 303-572-4487   4.8 / 762
Midtown Dental             +1 720-780-9321   4.8 / 502
Metropolitan Dental Care   +1 303-534-2626   4.9 / 1117
...
```

When you're done, stop it with `docker compose down -v`.

## If something goes wrong

**It stays on "working" forever.** You skipped Step 2. Make the fix. Then run `docker compose down -v` and `docker compose up -d` again.

**"docker" not found.** Docker Desktop isn't open yet. Open it. Wait for "running". Then open a new terminal window inside the kit folder.

**Almost no emails.** Expected. Use the phone and website columns.

## Credit

Built by Mahanaicoach (https://github.com/Mahanaicoach/google-maps-scraper-kit), MIT license. Free and open source.