“AI amplifies human capabilities.” โ Satya Nadella
โ What You’ll Learn
- How to build better products by โdogfoodingโ?
- Who used X (Twitter) to get a 7,500-person wait list?
- Who got 4,600,000 views on the launch tweet?
- How to fill your funnel with warm leads?
- How to get others to sell for you?
- Who used the existing user base to test AI features?
- Whoโs building AI startup studios?
- Who is building embedded AI?
- How to deal with weak moats?
- How to control API credits usage?
- How to stand out in this crowded market?
- How to direct AI to get accurate results?
- How to build niche AI models?
๐ Problem
We write first drafts, draw wireframes, edit videos and more.
This is slow and repetitive.
๐ก Solution
AI-powered SaaS helps you get results faster.
- Jenni AI writes research papers
- Framer builds websites from text
- OpusClip turns long videos into short clips
๐ Players
AI-Powered SaaS
- Loom โข Video recording for screen, camera and audio sharing
- Notion โข All-in-one workspace for notes, tasks and collaboration
- Hemingway AI โข Rewrite text for clarity
- Grain โข AI meeting automation tool
- Resume.io โข Write resumes with AI
๐ How to Build AI-Powered SaaS
- โDogfoodโ your product by using it yourself. You will build better products faster when you understand and empathize with customers.
- Matthew Lesiuk is building Clipio. He uses it for cold video outreach to market Clipio.
- Bhanu Teja P is building SiteGPT. He used it to build a chatbot for his blogging platform Feather.
- Simon Hoiberg is building Aidbase. He uses it to handle customer support on his personal website.
- Build an audience first. Fans are more eager to support you by buying or sharing your tool.
- Dharmesh Shah shared ChatSpot on X (Twitter). His post got 4,600,000 views.
- Bhanu Teja P launched SiteGPT on X (Twitter). The launch tweet got 1,000,000 views.
- Mark Gadala-Maria says growing on X (Twitter) helped him get 7,500 people on the waiting list for Post Cheetah.
- Build a waiting list to validate demand.
- Dorik lets you sign up for the waiting list for Dorik AI. It helps to generate UI, copy and images for your websites.
- Slack lets you sign up for the waiting list for Slack AI. It helps to get insights into your chats and knowledge bases.
- JetBrains lets you sign up for the waiting list for JetBrains Grazie. It helps software teams write and communicate better.
๐ฑ How to Grow AI-Powered SaaS
- Use side project marketing to get more users.
- Hippo Video has a video ROI calculator.
- QuillBot has a suite of free grammar tools.
- Jungle Scout has a profit calculator for dropshipping.
- Use a freemium model to fill your funnel.
- Aaron Edwards made DocsBot AI. Itโs free for chatting with docs with up to 50 pages.
- Abdulhadi Y made AI Magicx. You can make a limited number of articles, logos and images for free.
- Helghardt Avenant and Michail Brynard made Lampbuilder. You can build 1 landing page with AI on its free plan.
- Use affiliate marketing to get others to sell for you.
- Copymatic offers a 30% commission to affiliates.
- Seamless.AI offers a 20-40% commission to affiliates.
- Pieter Levels offers a 20% commission to Photo AI affiliates.
๐ฐ How to Monetize AI-Powered SaaS
- Offer subscriptions to get predictable revenue.
- Jon Yongfook is building Browserbear. He charges up to $949 per month.
- Shawn Tucker is building Feedloops. He charges $69 per year while itโs in beta.
- Dobroslav Radosavljeviฤ is building Written Labs. He charges up to $49 per month.
- Offer single-use plans for a one-time price. This helps to serve users with occasional needs.
- Jera sells website roast packs at Roast My Web.
- Lior Grossman is building Completely. It costs $39 per competitive analysis report.
- Philipp Seeser lets you enhance the audio of 1 file with Xound. It costs $4.99 per file.
- Use a free trial to convert more leads into customers.
- Jared Rhizor offers a 7-day trial for MealByMeal. It helps to track food and calories.
- Alex Buran offers a 7-day trial for Help-Desk.ai. It helps to build AI chatbots for customer services.
- Eddie Forson offers a 7-day trial for EnVsion. It helps to uncover insights from your customer interviews.
๐ฎ Predictions
- Companies will let existing users try AI features for free. Before locking them behind a paywall.
- Loom let existing users try Loom AI before launching.
- Evernote lets users try AI-powered search for free before adding it to paid plans.
- Archbee offered a beta of AI Addon for free to paid users. It now costs up to $50 per month on top of paid plans but is part of the Enterprise plan.
- Weโll see AI startup studios that take a systemized approach to building AI companies.
- Twelvefold builds generative AI tools.
- 1811 Labs builds AI products in 2-4 weeks.
- Slimmer AI is a venture studio for building AI products.
- Pawa is a venture studio for machine learning startups.
- VirASTRAL helps to build AI SaaS and generative AI products.
- AI will be embedded in hardware. The era of โsmart thingsโ will turn into the age of โAI thingsโ.
๐ Haters
โMost of these companies are retrofitting AI into existing products. The future is AI-native UX.โ
This is common with technology. It took decades for manufacturers to redesign factories around electricity instead of adding to existing factories. Progress is iterative.
โSome of these are AI wrappers with weak moats.โ
If an AI wrapper can make peopleโs lives easier, they will pay for it. Seize the opportunity when you have it.
โUncontrollable growth can lead to bankruptcy. Freemium users can eat up API credits faster than expected.โ
Limit the number of available credits to free users. Design Sense lets you generate only 1 image for free. Logie has user caps.
โThis market is crowded.โ
You can differentiate by offering unique features, great customer support or serving a niche audience.
๐ Links
- โ$22,000 in 1 Week with a Better UI for ChatGPT โข The thread behind this report.
- Building a Report on AI-Powered SaaS โข The tweet behind this report.
- What The Generative AI Craze Will Look Like โข AI experts and business leaders explain how AI will change the business.
- Making $22,000 in 7 days โข How Tony Dinh bootstrapped a better UI for ChatGPT.
๐ Related Reports
- โโโโโNiche AI Models โข These are fine-tuned to perform well on domain-specific tasks.
- AI Agents โข They work on your behalf without your supervision.
- Prompt Engineering โข Learn how to direct AI to get accurate results.
- No-Code โข Stop wasting time, money and energy doing repetitive work.
- Software Development Services โข Build a software business without technical skills.
๐ Thanks
Thanks to Maciej Cupial, Stewart Townsend and Vishal Srivastava. We had a great time jamming on this report.
โ๏ธ Emin researched and wrote this report. Dru researched and edited this report.
๐ What else?
Trends PRO #0141 โ AI-Powered SaaS has more insights.
What youโll get:
- 25 AI-Powered SaaS Examples (400% More)
- 18 Ways to Build AI-Powered SaaS (500% More)
- 11 Ways to Grow AI-Powered SaaS (267% More)
- 13 Ways to Monetize AI-Powered SaaS (333% More)
- 7 Predictions (133% More)
- 10 Links (150% More)
With Trends Pro youโll learn:
- (๐ Pro) How to hedge platform risk?
- (๐ Pro) How to lower market risk?
- (๐ Pro) How to build solutions to real problems?
- (๐ Pro) Who grew an AI SaaS to $12,000 MRR by solving their own problem?
- (๐ Pro) Who makes $75,000 MRR with a fine-tuned AI model?
- (๐ Pro) Who made $1,023 in 10 days by addressing flaws in competitors?
- (๐ Pro) How to make your AI SaaS easier to build and maintain?
- (๐ Pro) Who grew an AI SaaS to $20,000 in 6 months by building in public?
- (๐ Pro) Who grew by $1,090 MRR after a public launch?
- (๐ Pro) How to use TikTok to get 150,000 users?
- (๐ Pro) Who used influencer marketing to add $100,000 MRR?
- (๐ Pro) Who used TikTok to add $50,000 MRR for a B2C AI SaaS?
- (๐ Pro) How to offer AI features on demand?
- (๐ Pro) Who made $23,000 with a lifetime deal?
- (๐ Pro) How to monetize open-source SaaS?
- (๐ Pro) Who grew an AI SaaS to $18,000 MRR with Bubble?
- (๐ Pro) How a college student grew an AI support app to $64,000 MRR?
- (๐ Pro) Who grew a ChatGPT interface app to $10,000 in 4 days?
- (๐ Pro) How a college dropout built a $30,000,000 startup?
- (๐ Pro) What are 12 profitable SaaS ideas with validated demand?
- (๐ Pro) How to make $5,000 MRR with AI wrappers?
- And much moreโฆ
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