Lead Scoring for Founders: Score Threads, Not People

Enterprise lead scoring assigns points to people: job title +5, opened email +2. The founder's version scores threads — because on Reddit, the post is the lead.

The two-axis model that works

Axis 1 — Buying intent. Is a purchase decision in progress? Direct tool requests score 8–10. Comparison and alternative threads score 7–9. Problem venting scores 5–7. General discussion scores under 4. The phrasing taxonomy from the nine buying signals does the work.

Axis 2 — Compounding potential. Will this thread keep working after today? Question-format titles matching real search queries, threads in subs Google trusts, and topics with evergreen search demand all score high here — the answer you write today gets read by searchers for months.

The threads worth your immediate attention are high on both axes. High-intent + no SEO upside = a quick win worth taking today. Low-intent + high SERP potential = worth a thoughtful evergreen answer. High both = drop everything.

The scoring disciplines

• Score the thread at scan time, not reply time. Re-score bias happens when you've already written the answer — the exciting thread feels higher intent than it is.
• Track outcomes. Which scored threads actually produced conversations? Retune toward whatever converts for your product — an "8" that never converts is a 4.
• Decay matters. A 9.0 from yesterday is worth less than a 7.0 from an hour ago. Freshness is part of the score, not a footnote.

The day it creates

Done right, the morning ritual becomes: open the scored list, work the top five, done. That's the entire pitch for scoring — not more leads, but permission to ignore the rest.