# Show HN Founder & SaaS Startup Lead Finder (`matiaslencina/show-hn-startup-lead-finder`) Actor

Find fresh Show HN founders and startup launches, enrich product websites with public emails, contact pages, social profiles, traction signals, and lead scores. Built for agencies, SaaS sales, investors, and developer-tool prospecting.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/matiaslencina/show-hn-startup-lead-finder.md
- **Developed by:** [Matias Lencina](https://apify.com/matiaslencina) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $10.00 / 1,000 startup leads

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Show HN Founder & SaaS Startup Lead Finder

Find **fresh startup leads from Hacker News Show HN** and enrich them into useful founder / company prospecting records.

Instead of returning another Hacker News story dump, this Actor turns new launches into **startup leads** with public contact and traction signals.

### What you get

Each result can include:

- startup / product name and website
- Show HN discussion and founder/post author
- launch time, Hacker News points, and comments
- public email when exposed on the product website
- contact / about page
- LinkedIn, X/Twitter, and GitHub links
- website title and description
- 0–100 lead-quality score
- `hot`, `strong`, `medium`, or `early` signal

### Best for

- B2B SaaS prospecting
- founder outreach research
- agencies looking for newly launched companies
- developer-tool sales
- startup scouting and VC research
- competitive and launch intelligence

### Why this is different from a Hacker News scraper

A generic HN scraper gives you posts.

This Actor is built for **Show HN leads, startup leads, founder leads, and SaaS leads**. It follows the product URL, enriches the public website, and scores the result so you can prioritize the launches worth investigating first.

### Example input

```json
{
  "lookbackHours": 168,
  "maxItems": 30,
  "query": "AI",
  "minHnPoints": 2,
  "enrichWebsites": true,
  "requireContactSignal": false
}
```

### Scheduling

Schedule it hourly or daily to continuously discover newly launched products before they become old leads.

### Data & responsible use

The Actor reads public Show HN metadata and publicly accessible website content. Public contact information is provided as research data; users are responsible for applicable privacy, marketing, and anti-spam requirements.

# Actor input Schema

## `lookbackHours` (type: `integer`):

How far back to search for Show HN launches.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of qualified startup leads to return.

## `query` (type: `string`):

Optional keyword, e.g. AI, devtool, SaaS, finance.

## `minHnPoints` (type: `integer`):

Only keep launches with at least this many Hacker News points.

## `enrichWebsites` (type: `boolean`):

Visit each public product website to find email and social/contact links.

## `requireContactSignal` (type: `boolean`):

If enabled, only output launches where a public email, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, GitHub, or contact page is found.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "lookbackHours": 168,
  "maxItems": 30,
  "query": "",
  "minHnPoints": 0,
  "enrichWebsites": true,
  "requireContactSignal": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Structured startup lead records written to the default dataset.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("matiaslencina/show-hn-startup-lead-finder").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("matiaslencina/show-hn-startup-lead-finder").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call matiaslencina/show-hn-startup-lead-finder --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,matiaslencina/show-hn-startup-lead-finder"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/yJN7ZXbUK1BuzaI2H/builds/duAt2BpXbGvNnk2gm/openapi.json