Status: Live application, own tool
Built: August 2026, as its own app; outreach method added September 2026
My role: All of it
Related service: App Creation

The problem

Visual Network helps businesses that are hard to find. Finding those businesses by hand, directory by directory, takes a morning for a handful of names.

Who it is for

Me, first. Then web designers, marketers and small agencies who would rather spend the morning talking to prospects than building the list.

Constraints

Every search and every AI draft costs money, so every feature that spends money shows the cost before it runs. Members bring their own API keys, and mine are never used for their searches. The businesses it finds have not asked to be contacted, so drafts are written to be useful and polite, and a person approves every one.

The approach

Lead Finder started as a feature inside Visibility Pilot and became its own app in August 2026. In September 2026 I folded in the first-contact method from an earlier tool: name one gap you have actually observed, explain it in terms of whether AI tools can read the business, and offer something concrete. The ask is a reply, not a meeting.

What was built

A sweep of local trades across Google Maps and several business directories, with duplicates merged.
Checks on who has no website, a weak one, or a neglected Google Business Profile.
A first message drafted for each business, for a person to edit and approve.
Prospecting in English and French-speaking countries.
Member accounts with access codes, trials, monthly and annual plans, and two-factor sign-in.

The Lead Finder trade picker, showing trades grouped by how likely they are to be missing a website — The trade picker. The screens that list real businesses are not shown here: those businesses have not agreed to appear on a marketing page.

Technology

A web application with its own sign-in. It had a full security review in September 2026.

The outcome

Live, and in regular use for Visual Network's own prospecting.

Limitations

Directory data can be out of date. A missing website in a directory does not always mean there is no website. Drafts must always be read and approved by a person before they are sent.

Current status

Live. Member access available on request.