This is the free version of Trends PRO #0032 — Micro-SaaS
🔍 Problem
“If you build something for everyone, it works for no one.”
Big SaaS companies solve lots of problems for lots of people.
💡 Solution
Micro-SaaS solves a specific problem for a specific group.
🏁 Players
Dependent Micro-SaaS
Built on a platform. Platform risk is concentrated.
- ChimpCharge • Stripe
- ilo • Twitter
- Direct Memo • Slack
Integrated Micro-SaaS
Works across platforms. Diversification lowers platform risk.
- LiveRecover • Shopify, WooCommerce
- Leave Me Alone • Gmail, Outlook
- Mailbrew • Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, Product Hunt, Hacker News
Independent Micro-SaaS
🔮 Predictions
- Platforms will clone features from popular plugins. Shopify now offers abandoned cart follow ups.
- Micro-SaaS will thrive despite platforms cloning features. Abandoned cart apps, like CartHook, Consistent Cart, and Privy solve problems missed by Shopify. (via Andrew and Tyler)
- Competition will increase. Exhaust data, like traffic, reviews and backlinks, point to the best opportunities. Headlime faces competition after a great launch.
☁️ Opportunities
- Freelance to find valuable problems and your first customers. See Storemapper and RecTimes.
- Find Micro-SaaS ideas in forums. The founders of Memberspace noticed repeated requests in Squarespace forums.
- Build a Micro-XaaS. See NurtureKit, Conversion Crimes and Gloat.
- Offer subscriptions to digital products. See Page Flows, GoRails, Storytale, JustDjango and Start React Native.
- Use Micro-SaaS to reach large markets. MindBody went from gyms to yoga studios to any business with scheduling. (via Andrew and Prasanna)
😠 Haters
“Independent Micro-SaaS works with platforms.”
Some do. But they don’t depend on platforms.
“What about Medium-SaaS?”
Don’t take these definitions literally. These are heuristics. Think grey.
“Integrated Micro-SaaS is maintenance hell.”
There’s no free lunch. The tradeoff is lower platform risk. Independent Micro-SaaS avoids platform risk. And distribution gains from ecosystems. Like Shopify’s App Store.
“Everything has platform risk.”
Maybe systematic risk. Ever-present. It almost isn’t worth talking about.
🔗 Links
- Looking for Micro-SaaS examples • The tweet behind the report.
- Growing a Highly Profitable & Remote Micro-SaaS • RecTimes builds scheduling software for ice rinks.
- Traveling, Learning to Code and Bootstrapping to $25k/mo • Storemapper was conceived, built and launched in 36 hours.
Thanks to Prasanna Krishnamoorthy, Steve Peak, Tyler Tringas and Andrew Gazdecki for helping with this report and being great thought partners.
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What you’ll get:
- 50 Micro-SaaS Products (455% More)
- 6 Predictions (100% More)
- 11 Opportunities (120% More)
- 10 Summarized Links (233% More)
With Trends Pro you’ll learn:
- (📈 Pro) How to find a valuable problem to solve?
- (📈 Pro) Which founder makes $100K+ per month and buys competitors?
- (📈 Pro) Which companies were shut down due to platform changes?
- (📈 Pro) How can you reduce friction, improve discovery and acquire customers?
- (📈 Pro) How will large companies use Micro-SaaS to their advantage?
- (📈 Pro) Which companies are monetizing open-source?
- (📈 Pro) How to boost LTV and acquire customers for your Micro-SaaS?
- (📈 Pro) How to reduce horizontal competition?
- and a lot more…