How 61HAWK Found Hundreds of Sales Leads with Charlie
61HAWK isn't your typical ad agency. Founded in 2019 by Gary Stein in San Francisco, the firm was born from frustration with traditional agencies—the ones where you hand over time and money, they disappear with a whiteboard, and six months later you find out if it worked. "It's slow and it's monolithic," Gary explains.
61HAWK flips the script. They're an ad agency that acts like a data shop, treating advertising as a data engineering and a probability problem. Instead of big campaigns, they test small, move fast, and scale what works. On the data necessity, "we need that little nugget of truth," Gary says. "Not the big idea, but give me something that I can feel good about and build on."
This approach means 61HAWK is constantly hunting for difficult-to-find audiences. Usually, they find them while serving ads. But when a client asked, "Can you just find the audience for me?"—Gary said sure. That's how 61HAWK ended up needing permit data; enter Shovels.
The Challenge
Gary's client operates in the building infrastructure space. The challenge was finding companies exhibiting a very specific buying signal: facilities pulling permits for stacked parking systems (robotic stackers that efficiently park vehicles in dense urban areas, often serving hospitals, hotels, and office buildings).
The theory was straightforward; any facility installing parking stackers would be a great sales prospect. But finding these permits? Much harder than expected. Out of millions of permits, Gary's team needed to access then identify just a few highly specific matches. Three main obstacles stood in their way:
- Vague permit descriptions: Permits rarely said "parking stackers" explicitly. Contractors might call them "two post lifts," "puzzle parking," or file them under broader categories like electrical or seismic permits.
- False positives: Many permit record search results included auto repair shops using lifts for vehicle maintenance, not parking capacity. "If we were to market to an auto shop," Gary notes, "we'd waste our time and effort."
- Hidden in larger projects: The target permits were often buried within larger construction projects, requiring analysis of multiple permit types to identify the real use case.
As Gary put it: "We were shooting an arrow through a hole in the fence and hoping we were hitting a target."
The Solution
After initial conversations with Shovels, Gary became a beta tester of Charlie, our Claude MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration. Unlike our standard online search interface, Claude MCP gave him conversational access to our entire, 185M+ nationwide permit database through natural language queries.
61HAWK used Charlie to:
- Refine search queries iteratively, discovering synonyms and related terms for parking equipment—even finding slang terms contractors used. "We started finding some synonyms and some interesting other ways that people talk about parking structures. Even a slang term that was being used," Gary notes. "That would have been a hundred thousand dollar research project."
- Filter out false positives by excluding auto repair and maintenance facilities, dramatically improving lead quality and hit rates.
- Identify patterns across permit types that indicate automated parking installations.
- Export qualified leads directly to CSV for the sales team.
The Shovels team also provided 61HAWK with a list of licensed contractors from our Contractor Services List (CSL) who are specifically licensed to build or operate automated parking systems.
Unexpected Benefits
The contractor list turned out to be a game-changer. "Shovels also pulled a list of contractors who specialize in this particular kind of construction," Gary explains. "It allowed us to change the go-to-market strategy by focusing on a leverage point, an inflection point; if we make friends with one contractor, all of a sudden we have 100 installs."
This pivot, from targeting individual buildings to targeting the contractors who install these systems, opened up an entirely new approach that could scale much more effectively.
The Results
"I don't know how we would have done it without Shovels," Gary reflects. "It's almost like dividing by infinity." Despite the tricky use case, the pilot delivered:
- Hundreds of qualified leads delivered to the sales team
- Fast deployment: From first conversation to working system in 6 days
- High-value potential: "You don't need a huge hit rate to make this worthwhile," Gary notes.
- Validated feasibility: The client went from "I don’t know if this is even possible" to having a working, scalable system.
- Valuable sales assets created: The exploration itself generated assets the sales team could use immediately.
This use case also validated Shovels' emerging "proxy permit" methodology—finding target customers not through explicit permit types, but through patterns of multiple permit filings that signal specific construction activities.
Why 61HAWK Recommends Shovels
When asked if he'd recommend Shovels to others, Gary didn't hesitate. "Without a doubt," he says.
On competitive advantage: "I talked to another provider. They were significantly more expensive and way less technologically supportive."
On the partnership approach: "Shovels isn't just a data provider. You're a group of people who seem genuinely interested in our success. For a small company like us, or an ambitious company like our client, we need partners, not just vendors who say, 'Here's your data, good luck.' It feels like you actually care that we succeed."
On hands-on support: "The Shovels CEO and co-founder literally walked us through how to install the Shovels Charlie Beta on my computer. That set the tone right away." Gary continues: "Every time I asked a question, the Shovels team came right back and answered it quickly, easily, and deeply."
On innovation: "The innovation you're bringing to the data is really valuable for us. We have a data scientist working on this project, which helped immensely—but your approach is a force multiplier."
Looking Forward
Gary sees Shovels as more than just a permit database; it's an insight engine that can power 61HAWK's iterative marketing approach. "Shovels gives us true, quick, unique insights," he explains. "We can ask a question and get a nugget we can build on."
He envisions using permit data for macroeconomic insights too: "I could see asking many, many questions of this data about life anywhere. It's a big, messy data set that is available with a blinking cursor that says, 'What would you like to know?' It's remarkable."
For 61HAWK, Shovels provides the fast, localized truth they need to test ideas before scaling, turning permit data into competitive advantage, one nugget at a time.
Want to try Charlie?
Charlie exited beta in Q1 of 2026, and is now publicly available: https://www.shovels.ai/charlie
61HAWK is a strategic agency helping B2B companies identify and convert high-value prospects using data-driven insights. Learn more at 61hawk.com.