The Done Economy, part 4 of 9. A series from Prufloop™.
When we started working on Prufloop, the obvious move was to build another lead service with an AI front end. Take the request from an assistant, pass it to three pros, charge each of them for it. That business already exists, and it's a big one.
We decided not to build it. Here's why, and what we built instead.
The lead model charges for the wrong thing
Angi is the largest home services marketplace in the United States. Its own annual report for 2025 shows how the lead model works in practice:
- About $904 million in U.S. revenue, from roughly 122,000 pros active in an average month. That works out to about $7,400 per pro for the year.
- About $587 million of Angi's revenue came from leads: fees pros pay when a homeowner's request is passed to them, whether or not it turns into a job.
- The company reported about 20.2 million leads for 15.5 million service requests, or roughly 1.3 pros per request.
Google's Local Services ads work differently but land in a similar place. A 2026 review of 888 contractors by the agency SearchLight found an average of about $53 per lead and $233 per customer who actually paid. About three of every four paid leads went nowhere.
Out of every 4 paid leads on Google Local Services, about 1 became a customer who paid.
Sources: SearchLight review of 888 contractors (Feb 2026); Angi Inc. Form 10-K for 2025.
Show the data
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Cost per lead (Google Local Services) | $53 |
| Cost per paying customer | $233 |
| Paid leads per paying customer | about 4 |
| Angi leads in 2025 | 20.2 million |
| Angi service requests in 2025 | 15.5 million |
None of this is a scandal. It's just the math of charging for a phone number. The pro pays for the chance at a job, not for the job.
An AI assistant makes that model look worse, not better. If an assistant can compare prices and book directly, a "lead" is just a step that slows everyone down.
So we started from the other end
We asked a different question: what would a homeowner, a pro and an AI assistant each need to trust the same booking?
Bill Gates described the shift in 2023 as "the biggest revolution in computing since we went from typing commands to tapping on icons." We took that seriously. If assistants are going to act for people, the system they act on has to be built for them from day one, and it has to be fair to the people on both ends.
That led to a few decisions we've held onto:
No lead fees. 10% when the job is marked done. Joining is free. There are no lead fees and no monthly fee. When a job Prufloop sent is completed, we charge 10% of the invoiced work. If the job never happens, the pro owes nothing.
Honest terms come first. A pro can't be booked instantly by an assistant until their prices, fees and hours are published. Pros who hide their terms can still be found, but they need a phone call. We think that's the right trade.
The person sees the reasoning. Every match comes with a short explanation: what the person asked for, why this pro, what the trade-off was, and two alternatives.
No sign-up for homeowners. People will come through whatever AI assistant they already use. We verify a phone number with a one-time text. No account, no password, no app to download.
Any assistant, any pro software. We're building connections for the major AI assistants, a phone and text line any assistant can call, and a booking page. On the pro side, we work with the software they already use or give them ours for free.
What we threw out
We considered charging homeowners a protection fee and dropped it. Homeowners and assistants pay nothing extra.
The honest caveat
Whether a given AI assistant sends a request our way is up to that assistant. We can't promise it. What we control is the quality of the pros on our side, the clarity of their terms, and the record of what actually happened on every job. We think that's what an assistant should be choosing on anyway.
The belief underneath it all
Every choice above comes back to one view: the job of being found is giving way to the job of getting it done. For a generation, search engine optimization (SEO) and lead generation decided which businesses got seen, and businesses paid before any work happened. Agent Execution Enablement (AXE) is what replaces them: being verifiable, bookable and paid on proof by the AI assistants people now ask for help. Replacing SEO isn't about a new way to rank. For pros, it means clearer, more targeted work: booked jobs that fit what they do, instead of a stream of shared leads. For customers, it means less noise and more transparency: real prices, real availability and proof the job got done. And the money changes with it. Ad spend for lead generation is changing completely: instead of paying up front for clicks and shared leads that may never turn into work, businesses pay a share of real, booked work, charged when the job is marked done. SEO got you found. AXE gets it done.
Next: Honesty and transparency at the center
Sources
- Angi Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025: SEC filing
- SearchLight, Google Local Services cost per lead and per paying customer (888 contractors, Feb 2026): SearchLight
- Bill Gates, Gates Notes, November 2023: CNBC
Prufloop is a trademark of Prufloop. Prufloop's Charlotte-area pilot launches in Q4 2026; features described here are in development.