ISSUE 001 · SCRAPING IN CLAUDE CODE
Find → Buy → Lead → Grow
AI is unlocking the internet.
An intro to data extraction for business buyers - turn 5 hours into 5 minutes
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TL;DR
PROBLEM. SMB entrepreneurs need a rolodex of qualified brokers, but IBBA's directory doesn’t export. 2,800 qualified contacts live behind as many clicks.
SOLUTION. Type
/smb-find-ibbainto Claude Code. Zero clicks. Every broker.VALUE. Unlock the universe of qualified brokers. Get noticed, find your deal, or list your business.
Use responsibly, never SPAM these contacts. Always check terms of service before scraping…IBBA terms do not prohibit scraping.
Problem
Every business buyer eventually needs this: a list of qualified business brokers.
Sellers need it too.
If you want to know which brokers are certified and hold a CBI designation, the International Business Broker Association (IBBA) publishes exactly that. A national dataset of ~2,800 certified brokers, free to anyone with a browser.
But you can’t have it.
Or at least not without spending hours clicking through thousands of pages. 🙄
No data set
The brokers are split across fifty pages (one for each US state). But their emails — the part you actually want — sit one click deeper, on each broker's individual profile.
Even if you only need a region (e.g., IBBA brokers on the east coast), that’s still a lot of time wasting. And don’t forget turnover - you’ll need to do this again periodically.
What are your options? Manual data collection, delegation, outsourcing, learn to code, or ask AI.
But asking ChatGPT is the wrong approach.
ChatGPT struggled a bit
Solution
Web scraping is the obvious solution.
You don’t have to learn how to code.
Just ask AI to teach itself how to scrape the page using a natural language prompt, and then build a repeatable process. Test and debug.
I already did that for you (link below).
Source code
If you’re a beginner with coding and with AI, this is a great place to start.
Don’t be intimidated.
Claude Code is similar to Claude chat, just with the keys to the internet. 🔑
You don’t need to be able to read the code above to use it.
Just dive in.
Value
A broker list won't change your life. But it will accelerate your search to acquire or sell your business. If nothing else, at least you don’t need to pay a freelancer $1k or waste a day clicking.
🛠 Implement
Download Claude desktop
Open Claude Code (not Chat, not Cowork)
Download this zip file → /smb-find-ibba
Drag it to Claude Code and say “install this”
Then type
/smb-find-ibbaand follow along
Click download
p.s. If you really don’t want to touch Claude Code you can pay for the data two ways.
Apify, a marketplace for scrapers, has a paid IBBA broker scraper. Haven’t tried it, would not recommend
Origami, a tool I’ve been testing lately. Very nice, but still would not use for the IBBA data. It’s better for B2B sales or proprietary deal sourcing. But if you’re determined, use my link* for +500 credits while testing.
Origami figured out exactly how to scrape IBBA data
Next issue
Introduction to n8n with our first hosted AI workflow to manage CIMs and deal flow.
Cheers,
David
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