The players Kinsey named — how we emulate what works and beat what doesn't
High-volume home-services lead gen, mostly through paid social — the channel Kinsey's team never cracked.
Proved paid social works at scale for home services where everyone else defaulted to paid search.
Volume over quality, no closed disposition loop — buyers still eat the quality problem.
Match their social reach with AI-run creative + targeting, then add the disposition feedback loop and AI qualification they lack. Sell exclusive, priced on jobs won.
Generates the majority of its leads through native ads; buyers cite them for quality and transparency.
Native discovery reach + transparent quality reporting that builds buyer trust.
No AI qualification layer; quality is reported after the fact, not engineered into the lead.
Match native reach, then out-transparent them with a live buyer dashboard showing cost-per-sold-job, not just delivery. Qualify before sale so quality is a guarantee, not a report.
The holding company that acquired HomeBuddy — the buyer at the other end of this market.
Capital + appetite to roll up proven lead-gen assets in home services.
Needs assets worth buying; the durable moat is the data loop, which most targets don't have.
Not a competitor — the exit signal. The ~$190M multiple is proven. Build the loop-driven asset that a Queen Street (or a strategic) wants to acquire, or that out-earns them independently.
One of the best-quality affiliate sources Kinsey buys real-time leads from.
Strong intent-data signals — quality that often beats in-house generation.
It's supply we rent; margin leaks to them until we generate comparable quality ourselves.
Buy from them day one to seed brokerage cash flow, study what makes their intent signals convert, and rebuild that generation in-house to capture the full margin.
Multi-vertical affiliate source for buying real-time and aged leads.
Breadth across verticals and volume on demand.
Commodity supply — quality varies, and everyone can buy the same leads (the 30-day rejection problem).
Use as flexible supply while ramping, but dedupe hard and route exclusive-first so we never resell a lead a buyer already has.
Utah company: started as workflow/lead SaaS, acquired a marketing agency, now runs lead gen for SMB contractors.
Owns both the workflow SaaS and the lead supply for small 1–3 truck outfits.
Heavy headcount, traditional (non-AI) marketing; slower and more expensive per lead.
Beat them AI-native: 3 people do what their 30 do. Same 'own the workflow + leads' model, a fraction of the cost — and the disposition loop they don't run.
CRM for contractors that also feeds leads to its mom-and-pop / SMB base. Exec is a known contact.
Owns the SMB contractor relationship + workflow where leads get worked.
Not a lead-generation specialist — the leads are a bolt-on, not the core engine.
Distribution partner, not competitor. Be the lead engine behind their SMB base; the warm exec relationship is a fast door into thousands of small buyers.
Figures marked "est." or drawn from the call are working estimates, not confirmed numbers. Confirm against Kinsey's real data before using externally.