PermitTorch

by Fletcher Douglas

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Oct 5, 2026 Marketing & Sales

contractors lead generation public permits sales-leads web scraping

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people who do. A few months ago I wanted to build a web scraper that could turn into a real business. I asked ChatGPT for a list of the ten most profitable scraping ideas. Most were crowded, but one stood out: turning public building permits into sales leads for contractors. Big lead platforms cover general construction. Nobody seemed to be doing it well for a niche trade, so I picked fire protection and started building. That scraper grew into a full app called PermitTorch. Cities and counties...