Why Lead Gen Still Sucks (and What That Actually Means for Founders)

Lead gen is still broken—and that’s exactly why it’s ripe for founders to fix.

There’s no shortage of lead gen tools. Or providers. Or agencies. But somehow, almost everyone using them still sounds disappointed.

Sales teams complain about lead quality. Marketing teams complain about how those leads are tracked. And founders? Founders just want the pipeline to move without babysitting agencies, sorting through spreadsheets, or wondering whether the contacts dumped into Salesforce are even real people.

You’d think, by now, this would be fixed. It isn’t.

Problem 1: Leads ≠ Pipeline

We’re not short on names, emails, and phone numbers. We’re short on traction.

Lead gen providers often overpromise, then deliver lists that go nowhere. Even SDR teams burn out chasing 'leads' that bounce, ghost, or were never even in-market.

On paper, it’s performance marketing. In practice, it’s paying for noise.

Problem 2: Salesforce Is a Maze

Ask any marketer about the Salesforce Lead object and watch them wince. The split between Leads and Contacts seems harmless, but it breaks everything. Attribution, handover to sales, reporting—it all gets fuzzier.

If your product requires account-based sales, this structure can work against you.

Plenty of folks have written rants and migration guides, but the core issue remains: CRM architecture built for a different era is still setting the rules.

Problem 3: Quality Is a Postmortem

Lead quality problems usually show up too late. After the handoff. After outreach. After budget’s been burned.

Sure, there are ways to score and filter. But most lead gen processes rely on heuristics, not intent signals. And while tools promise enrichment, the workflows they live in aren’t exactly smart. They’re stitched together across APIs, with plenty of drop-off points along the way.

So Where’s the Opportunity?

This isn’t a space lacking in vendors. But it is a space where:

Tech is duct-taped to legacy systems. Incentives are misaligned between buyers and sellers. No one’s built a solution that fits the way B2B sales actually works in 2025

Founders who can rethink qualification, intent, and signal collection—before a handoff—could win here. There’s room for a solution that focuses less on list-building and more on contextual insight. There’s room for intelligent filters, better matching, and pipelines that don’t fall apart halfway through.

And if you’re still tempted to build yet another scraper, maybe ask yourself: what would you trust if you were the one paying for the leads?

Let's build.

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