Every dot behind this page is a website he owns
I build the infrastructure behind local services. You've probably never heard of me. You may have already called one of my companies.
Watch the field. Every few seconds, somewhere in it, a phone starts ringing. That's the machine, working. It doesn't care whether the sun is up.
I · The facts
Matteo Ruberto is a Dutch-Italian entrepreneur who builds and owns the demand for local services: thousands of local websites on three continents,1 currently in the top three of Google, generating tens of millions of euros in leads for the trade companies behind them, all run as a single machine under LEAD MAGNATE (Dubai) and COOKIES (Zwolle).
The model is simple: he invests first. He builds the websites, takes the risk, and sells the resulting phone calls pay per lead, invoiced weekly, without contracts; everyone is free to leave any Monday, which is exactly why they stay. Where the demand comes from is a detail, search today, AI assistants tomorrow. The asset stays his, like real estate, but digital, and everything that can be automated is automated: an AI pipeline classifies every incoming call daily, while billing, analytics and monitoring run without human hands.
He built his first website in 1998, aged nine,2 and discovered search in 2008 in his father's restaurant during the financial crisis, when a teenager with an iMac kept the bookings growing while the street went quiet. After checking himself into rehab at rock bottom in 2015, he rebuilt himself from the ground up and took full ownership of everything in his life; a reinvention he has applied to himself, and his companies, ever since. He lives in Dubai with his wife and three children, and answers to no committee.
II · The record
- Thousands of local service websites, on three continents. Top three in Google, for now. The channel changes; the machine doesn't.
- Tens of millions of euros in leads generated for his clients.
- First website in 1998, aged nine. First win in 2008, in his father's restaurant, during a crisis.
- Clients pay per lead, weekly, no contracts. They can leave any Monday. They don't.
- Dutch national hospitality champion, 2012, for a wine bar in Zwolle.3
- Checked himself into rehab in 2015. Rebuilt from zero. Still reinventing.
III · The machine
Demand is an asset. I build it, I own it, I place it.
Most marketing is rented: you pay a retainer, you hope, the agency sends a report. I stopped selling that in 2020. Instead I build local websites by the thousands and own the moment a customer picks up the phone. Companies pay only when that phone rings for them. One company per city. No auctions, no contracts, no lock-in.
I don't sell rankings and I don't sell clicks. I sell ringing phones, and I am indifferent to where they come from: search today, AI assistants tomorrow, whatever comes after that. The machine runs itself on purpose. AI classifies every incoming call each morning, invoices send themselves weekly, and if a process needs a human hand twice, it gets automated the second time.
IV · The trucks
I also run the vans, the ladders and the technicians.
At some point my machines generated more demand in home services than any contractor could fulfil to my standard. I hold every deal to a simple test: the homeowner gets a reliable craftsman, the tradesman feeds his family and his payroll, and I take my share. Win, win, win, or no deal. When nobody could deliver that standard, I built national service operations of my own, with my own technicians, running at a fraction of a traditional company's overhead because the back office is software.
That is why I understand the tradesmen I work with. I am one of them: I know what a missed call costs, because some of those calls are mine.
V · The operator
The product I optimize hardest is me.
"Create so much value that abundance has no choice but to follow."
I grew up in an entrepreneurial family; my parents ran restaurants, and my father still runs one. I box three times a week, train calisthenics, run and swim, and I have meditated twice a day, every day, since 2014. Sauna, red light, books, courses, and whatever technology is newest: I test it all, on myself first. The habit is the same one that runs the companies, and the same one that got me out of 2015: take full ownership, reprogram what does not work, repeat.
I believe in karma the way engineers believe in gravity: I have tested it both ways. The years I blamed everyone else, life paid me accordingly. The day I took ownership and started serving first, everything turned. Serve first, scale second, and let the results prove the philosophy right.
I live in Dubai, a city that encourages ambition, with my wife and our three children. I read more than I watch. And I still get restless when a homepage loads slower than it should.
VI · Contact
No calls, no coffee. If you have a reason to reach me, tell me who you are and what it's about. Relevance decides.