🔷 Micro-SaaS

‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Hey there, Welcome to the 365 new entrepreneurs who joined last week. Thanks to [Rob Walling]( (TinySeed),[Stewart Townsend]( (Channel as a Service),[Whit Anderson]( (Bad Unicorn),[Natwar Maheshwari]( (Engineering Brew),[Noah Bragg]( (Potion),[Jeremy Abraham]( (Spiffy),[Ramy Khuffash]( (Page Flows),[Yarty Kim]( (Bourne Fighter),[Will Hankinson]( (IntroCave),[Vishal Srivastava]( (Trainedge),[Thomas Jacquesson]( (TweetHunter),[Kimsia Sim]( (GreenDeploy),[Héctor Reyes]( (Control),[Sam Julien]( ([SamJulien.com]( Deck]( (ShieldNumber),[Shashank Agrawal]( (Omdena),[Jamil Abreu]( (Substack) and[Lu Doan]( (Agent Shield). We had a great time jamming on this report. Let's talk about Micro-SaaS. What you’ll learn: - What’s Micro-SaaS? - How to increase your odds of success? - What are the advantages of Micro-SaaS? - How do small teams solve big problems? - Why should you buy instead of build? - (📈 Pro) How to validate your Micro-SaaS? - (📈 Pro) What’s Software with a Service (SwaS)? - (📈 Pro) How to lower customer acquisition costs and boost lifetime value? - (📈 Pro) How to productize your pain? - (📈 Pro) What’s the “upside” of platform risk? Unlock Trends Pro ✅ Access All Trends Pro Reports ✅ Learn Together in our Book Club ✅ Stay Accountable with Daily Standups ✅ Meet Curious Entrepreneurs in Weekly Meetups ✅ Discuss Reports with Domain Experts ✅ Collaborate on Upcoming Reports [Become a Trends Pro Member]( [Micro-SaaS]( “If you’re selling to everyone, you’re selling to no one.” Why It Matters Micro-SaaS helps you design your life without optimizing for investors and large teams. It can also be a wedge into larger markets. Morphing into SaaS. Or even a platform. Big things start small. 🔍 Problem Large SaaS apps solve lots of problems for lots of people. 💡 Solution Micro-SaaS apps solve a specific problem for a specific group of people. Some traits: - Run by a solo founder or small team - Focused on a single feature or minimal feature set - Extends a platform such as Shopify, Stripe or Intercom 🏁 Players - [Potion]( • Create custom websites in Notion. - [TextRetailer]( • Let customers shop using text messages. - [Placid]( • Generate social share images. - [Elon Stocks]( • Trade on Elon's tweets. - [Super]( • Turn Notion pages into websites. - [Plausible]( • Simple, privacy-friendly analytics. - [PermanentLink]( • Prevent link rot. - [ilo]( • Understand how your tweets perform. - [Benji]( • Tax write-offs for Canadian freelancers. - [Control]( • Financial management app for small businesses. - [Userbase]( • User authentication. - [ScreenshotAPI]( • Programmatic screenshots. 🔮 Predictions - We’ll see more Micro-SaaS apps built with [no-code]( tools like Bubble and Bildr. [InvestorFuse]( reached $50k/mo using Podio and Zapier. [SendPilot.co]( runs on Bubble. The first version of [Shoutout]( was built on Bubble. - Open-source, SaaS alternatives will continue to emerge. A few examples: - [Baserow]( • Alternative to [Airtable]( - [Joplin]( • Alternative to [Notion]( and [Evernote]( - [Athens]( • Alternative to [Roam]( and [Obsidian]( - [Papercups]( • Alternative to [Crisp]( and [Intercom]( - [Supabase]( and [Nhost]( • Alternatives to [Firebase]( - [Calendso]( Alternative to [SavvyCal]( and [Calendly]( - [Bitwarden]( • Alternative to [1Password]( and [LastPass]( - Platforms will continue to clone popular plugins. Shopify now offers [native abandoned cart recovery](. They are outsourcing R&D. - Micro-SaaS will thrive despite platforms cloning features. Abandoned cart apps, like [CartHook]( [Consistent Cart]( and [Privy]( solve problems missed by Shopify. They can move faster than large apps and design for thousands instead of millions of people. ☁️ Opportunities - Index into an existing market to reduce [market risk](. Find fast-growing form factors like [AI-Generated Copy]( [Notion-to-Site]( and [Sheet-to-Site]( tools. Don’t try to recreate the wheel. - Build a [Micro-XaaS](. See [NurtureKit]( and [Gloat](. Services are typically faster to revenue than software. This is another way to [stairstep]( your way to SaaS. - Buy instead of build to save time. [XOXO Capital]( owns a feedback tool, screenshot service and sheet-to-API tool. See more examples in the [Micro Private Equity]( report. Time is not money. It’s non-renewable. - Look at [digital product subscriptions](. See [Page Flows]( [GoRails]( [Storytale]( [JustDjango]( and [Start React Native](. Content can offer a faster route to revenue than software. [Stairstep]( your way to SaaS. - Make the leap from services to SaaS. Tyler Tringas got the idea for [Storemapper]( while freelancing. Craig Hewitt ran a podcast editing service before a [podcast hosting service](. 🔑 Key Lessons - Micro-SaaS is about focus. Large, monolithic apps may have more features, financing and people. But they lack focus. Micro-SaaS apps can make design concessions for specific groups of people. - Technical moats are fading. Code is being commoditized. Distribution matters more than ever. - Micro-SaaS is an example of the increasing leverage of individuals. Solo founders and small teams can build more and faster than ever before. This meta-trend also shows up in Million-Dollar, One Person Businesses, No-Code and Low-Code. 😠Haters “Your definition of Micro-SaaS doesn’t mention revenue.” You’re right. [It doesn’t](. A revenue ceiling may be correlated to small teams and hyper-focused features. But making money doesn’t make you less of a Micro-SaaS. “What if a customer outgrows my Micro-SaaS?” Some will. [Productized Services]( are similar. Their ability to streamline operations stems from their ability to focus. If you’re selling to everyone, you’re selling to no one. Focus isn’t free. Don’t lose a diamond chasing glitter. “You say index into markets. What about well-established markets?” It’s not a hard rule. Slow-growing markets with embedding effects may be hard to break into. Or the market is already small. Consider opportunity costs. Some battles aren’t worth fighting. 🔗 Links - [Who should I talk to about Micro-SaaS?]( • The tweet behind this report. - [The Stair Step Approach to Bootstrapping]( • "In my experience, the biggest pitfall that trips up first-time product people is trying to create something too complex." - [SaaS Market Predictions]( • "In my mind, the 'micro' in Micro-SaaS referred not to the size of the company or product, but to the scope of the problem being solved." What else? [Trends PRO #0063— Micro-SaaS]( has more insights. What you’ll get: - 50 Micro-SaaS Apps (216% More) - 9 Predictions (125% More) - 11 Opportunities (120% More) - 6 Key Lessons (100% More) - 10 Links (233% More) - 16-minute audio episode with exclusive Micro-SaaS stories, insights and opportunities. With Trends Pro you'll learn: - (📈 Pro) How to validate your Micro-SaaS? - (📈 Pro) What’s Software with a Service (SwaS)? - (📈 Pro) How to lower customer acquisition costs and boost lifetime value? - (📈 Pro) How to productize your pain? - (📈 Pro) What’s the “upside” of platform risk? - (📈 Pro) What’s the future of lifetime deals? - (📈 Pro) Who built the first version of their SaaS with no-code tools? - and a lot more… Unlock Trends Pro ✅ Access All Trends Pro Reports ✅ Learn Together in our Book Club ✅ Stay Accountable with Daily Standups ✅ Meet Curious Entrepreneurs in Weekly Meetups ✅ Discuss Reports with Domain Experts ✅ Collaborate on Upcoming Reports [Become a Trends Pro Member]( Thanks, Dru Riley Founder, Trends.vc Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe](. Our mailing address: 101 Marietta Street Northwest Atlanta, GA 30303