00:00:00
starting a business isn't just about
00:00:02
becoming the next Silicon Valley unicorn
00:00:04
I think that one of the powers of
00:00:06
building software starting SAS companies
00:00:08
is about creating Freedom imagine you
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had an extra 2,000 4,000 or even $10,000
00:00:14
a month in your budget to cover your
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mortgage maybe a car payment daycare or
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maybe in your life it covers a lot more
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than that there is no more profitable
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business that I know of than B2B SAS I'm
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Rob Walling I've built and sold a
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handful of companies I've written five
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books and I've invested in more than 210
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SAS startups I often say that instead of
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telling me your idea tell me the problem
00:00:37
it solves and for whom and so in this
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video we dug deep into Reddit threads to
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find six real problems that people in a
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business context are facing and looking
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to solve these are ideas that we think
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have the potential to become real income
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generating SAS companies these ideas are
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very unlikely to become billion dooll
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outcomes but just maybe you could build
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a business that allows you to kiss your
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day job goodbye the first idea is
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Inventory management for custom apparel
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businesses and we'll link up the Reddit
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threads for all six of these ideas in
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the description and in this video I use
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the acronym op for original poster the
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person who posted the idea the op writes
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we are a relatively small company that
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produces custom apparel for artists
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musicians other businesses as well as
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creating and selling our own designs
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often one-of a kind and runs we sell via
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bulk runs e-commerce and sell at various
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events products we sell on the website
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are made to order I need software that
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does four things number one tracks
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component apparel for example blank
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shirts hats hoodies Etc integrates with
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our Shopify store and accounts for
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component apparel used for each made to
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order sale creates barcodes and skews
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for oneof a kind of items sold at
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vending booths and tracks work in
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progress items for example a white
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t-shirt that was tie-dyed and will
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likely be used for embroidery later
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obviously I don't expect free software
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but something that costs $100 per month
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may be more than we can afford at this
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time but as the manager I may be able to
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convince the owner that paying that
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amount or more may be necessary so I
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think the op is saying don't expected to
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be free but $100 a month is too much if
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I'm interpreting this and some of these
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Reddit threads I'll admit are you know
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they they write things that are a bit
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unclear so we're trying to make an
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interpretation here most of the ideas in
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this video are focused on a vertical
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Niche this is not only apparel but it's
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custom apparel I really like vertical
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and orthogonal apps because they have a
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lot of advantages over the competitive
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blood bath that horizontal SAS brings
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but if I was going to do any of these I
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would personally try to lean into a
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competitive Advantage I have whether
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it's an existing Network or an audience
00:02:49
or frankly just some experience or
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someone I know that's in one of these
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spaces you don't need that to start a
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sass I know so many Founders who've gone
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into spaces where they didn't have
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experience
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but in these tight vertical niches it is
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always helpful if you can possibly pile
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on your competitive Advantage when most
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of us are starting out we don't have a
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competitive advantage in any space so at
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a certain point you do just have to make
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a decision and move forward but the more
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experience you get the more ideas you
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try the more extensive your network
00:03:19
obviously the more likelihood that you
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can find yourself with a competitive
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advantage in one of these spaces second
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idea is integrating ticketing systems
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across customers the op rights I'm
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reaching out to see how managed service
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providers or msps are managing the
00:03:35
challenge of dealing with multiple
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external ticketing systems when the
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communication happens via email rather
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than API integration we work with
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clients who use platforms like top desk
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fresh service service now and others
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since there's no API integration in
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place all communication comes in the
00:03:50
form of emails which are then processed
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in our own ticketing system this setup
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has proven to be a constant headache
00:03:56
here are the core issues we're facing
00:03:57
the first is email formatting incons
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consistencies external ticketing systems
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send emails in wildly different formats
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making it tough to parse and automate
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ticket handling consistently auto reply
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Loops it's all too common for auto
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replies to create endless loops with
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both systems firing responses back and
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forth this clogs up our system and
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creates a lot of noise manual ticket
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management despite efforts to automate
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we often have to manually merge
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responses assign tickets correctly or
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even identify duplicate tickets because
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the email integration is far from stable
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and the fourth is customization
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challenges even with customers specific
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configurations to handle emails better
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it's fragile one slight change in the
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external ticketing systems email
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Behavior can break the whole setup we've
00:04:37
tried building rules and filters but
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they can only go so far the entire
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process feels duct taped together and I
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can't shake the feeling there must be a
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better way and maybe just maybe if you
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know what an MSP is the better way might
00:04:48
be you building some software but first
00:04:50
of course it would be some type of
00:04:51
validation is anyone else searching for
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this do you see any other threads
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anywhere on Kora on stack exchange do
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you see any Google uh keyword search is
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for this type of tool or do you just see
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red threads can you do cold Outreach to
00:05:04
folks who are in the same position as
00:05:06
this person because one person's need
00:05:08
does not define a market but if the need
00:05:10
is desperate enough and enough people
00:05:12
have it and you can get into
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conversations with even a handful of
00:05:15
folks who share this same pain this may
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be something you want to tackle idea
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number three is an Erp for small
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manufacturing facilities so the op
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paraphrased writes we have a small
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dietary supplement manufacturer in the
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US about 30 employees and we need to
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upgrade our system to a unified Erp we
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manufacture things like you would see at
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GNC health pills and electrolyt so it's
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like vitamin stuff we use a system of
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QuickBooks and lots of spreadsheets and
00:05:44
some third-party apps but managing them
00:05:46
and syncing them even with automation is
00:05:48
too much there aren't the software
00:05:50
controls or permissions available to
00:05:52
know when someone has done something
00:05:53
accurately or at all so that's one main
00:05:55
reason for going the Erp route some of
00:05:57
the pain points are traceability every
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ingredient that comes in needs to be
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traced all the way through what it's
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used in and to whom it gets shipped to
00:06:04
number two is change order requests to
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work orders number three is accurate
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costing with regards to loss yields and
00:06:10
scrap and the fourth is processing
00:06:12
adjustments for example adding flow
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agents and Manufacturing processing AIDS
00:06:17
and accounting for that due to ambient
00:06:18
environmental conditions I'm looking for
00:06:20
Erp recommendations I was considering
00:06:22
business Central either through a
00:06:24
Microsoft partner or the apti and build
00:06:25
on but I'm just not sure if that's the
00:06:27
right fit and Opie goes on to write so
00:06:29
concerns they have about existing
00:06:31
options and they wrap up with it's
00:06:33
important to have apis for us to be able
00:06:34
to extract data for business
00:06:36
intelligence and other automations with
00:06:38
third party tools and to share across
00:06:39
Shopify and other custom ordering
00:06:41
portals we created for clients it's not
00:06:44
the sexiest business but I like really
00:06:46
boring B2B SAS because most people don't
00:06:48
want to get into it and you can charge a
00:06:50
lot for it I've never built an Erp I've
00:06:52
never used an Erp but I know what one is
00:06:55
and if you want to get into this type of
00:06:57
space the big upfront task would be to
00:07:00
do some type of validation you start
00:07:02
with your 2-hour validation of research
00:07:04
online looking at keyword tools looking
00:07:06
at all the places that people hang out
00:07:08
is anyone else have this type of problem
00:07:10
then think about your 20-hour validation
00:07:12
which is Outreach and talking to folks
00:07:14
who might have this problem as well as
00:07:16
potentially building a landing page and
00:07:18
sending people to it and then of course
00:07:20
200 hour validation If You Get There is
00:07:22
building the MVP in this case you're
00:07:24
building an Erp it's not going to take
00:07:25
200 hours it's going to take a lot more
00:07:27
so this would be a case of two 20 and
00:07:30
then something more than 200 to get an
00:07:32
MVP in people's hands this is a type of
00:07:34
software that you would need to charge a
00:07:36
lot of money this is not a $50 a month
00:07:38
$100 a month app you're going to need to
00:07:40
be really digging in you're going to be
00:07:42
thinking 10 20 40K a year to provide
00:07:46
this level of sophistication and power
00:07:49
that this op is looking for and if you
00:07:51
look at any of the competitors the op
00:07:53
mentioned they're all very very
00:07:55
expensive if you're not quite ready to
00:07:56
build a standalone SAS like an Erp
00:07:59
here's something you should consider
00:08:00
building a Marketplace app I recently
00:08:02
sat down with sneer alof who launched
00:08:04
four apps on the monday.com marketplace
00:08:07
and within a year he's already at
00:08:09
$30,000 in monthly recurring Revenue in
00:08:12
our conversation he broke down his exact
00:08:14
process for finding and validating these
00:08:16
micro SAS ideas you've heard me talk
00:08:18
about this before app marketplaces make
00:08:20
fantastic first businesses because
00:08:22
you're not starting from zero since
00:08:23
you've got a built-in customer base take
00:08:25
monday.com for example they've got over
00:08:27
225
00:08:29
th000 customers across more than 200
00:08:31
Industries and 90% of their large paying
00:08:34
customers have at least one app
00:08:36
installed if you wanten familiar
00:08:38
monday.com is a multi-product platform
00:08:40
that runs all core aspects of work
00:08:43
business owners and teams of all sorts
00:08:45
use it to streamline their work using
00:08:47
their Work Management CRM service and
00:08:49
Dev products if you want to follow sne
00:08:52
path monday.com has put together this
00:08:54
detailed ebook that's essentially your
00:08:56
customer research Playbook it breaks
00:08:58
down their core User Group typical job
00:09:00
titles specific pain points and how
00:09:02
these customers are actually using the
00:09:04
platform it's basically months of
00:09:06
customer research hand it to you on a
00:09:08
silver platter to grab your free copy
00:09:10
just head over to the link below fill
00:09:12
out a quick form and sign up for your
00:09:14
developer account big thanks to
00:09:15
monday.com for sponsoring this video now
00:09:17
let's dive into our next Idea Idea
00:09:19
number four is client portal for a
00:09:21
retail in-person business brick and
00:09:23
mortar the op writes I need a software
00:09:26
platform or website integration that
00:09:28
allows us to solve a few things for our
00:09:30
customers mainly the customer experience
00:09:32
and satisfaction from having a One-Stop
00:09:34
shop for their order or service they
00:09:36
want we don't have inventory everything
00:09:38
we sell is custom ordered 1 to 1 and A2
00:09:40
years out is not uncommon items are
00:09:43
sourced from all over the globe and sold
00:09:45
in the US we also offer consulting
00:09:47
services to clients in the same field
00:09:49
this requires deliverables the client
00:09:51
portal should have and the op writes a
00:09:53
lot of bullets I'll read the first three
00:09:54
or four but you can reference the post
00:09:56
if you want the first one is a login
00:09:57
portal with order or service detail
00:09:59
second is approval process workflow with
00:10:02
contracts to sign by the client Po and
00:10:04
invoicing file management for documents
00:10:06
and pictures integration with Dropbox is
00:10:08
fine and then you know there's seven
00:10:10
eight nine 10 more bullets that you can
00:10:12
reference if you're interested in this
00:10:13
one the op wraps up above are some of
00:10:15
the features I would like some I'll have
00:10:17
to rely on API connections from other
00:10:19
systems do you want to build software
00:10:21
for Brick and Mortar businesses I don't
00:10:23
know could be an untapped Market or
00:10:24
could be a problem that only this one
00:10:26
person has or could be a very small
00:10:28
Market as with all these ideas they
00:10:30
haven't been validated we've just
00:10:32
encountered problems on the internet
00:10:34
this is the very tip of the spear in
00:10:36
terms of doing research online to find
00:10:38
real problems that real businesses are
00:10:40
experiencing and in theory these real
00:10:42
businesses should be willing to pay for
00:10:44
that's the seed of a great startup Idea
00:10:47
Idea number five is a simple M media
00:10:50
Asset Management mostly videos and at
00:10:53
the least for one person content
00:10:55
creators simple budget friendly we
00:10:57
tweaked this original post to make it
00:10:59
easier to read but the op writes I'm a
00:11:01
solo content creator who's wasting too
00:11:03
much time sifting through b-roll or
00:11:05
having to re-shoot footage because I
00:11:06
can't remember what I have I spent hours
00:11:09
yesterday going through various options
00:11:12
kyn though it's dead now edit ready and
00:11:14
I'm currently trying out vidue vidue
00:11:17
isn't bad though it's very clunky
00:11:19
they're a tiny team and don't update
00:11:21
enough so necessary features aren't
00:11:22
being added and it sometimes creates
00:11:24
additional workflow my other option was
00:11:26
to pay for an advanced MacBook finder
00:11:27
and just tag and write descriptions the
00:11:30
op wants it to be available offline to
00:11:32
manage one to two existing hard drives
00:11:34
to ideally be a one-time solution ooh
00:11:37
not a subscription no see I would V I
00:11:39
would personally be vetting does anyone
00:11:41
else willing to pay subscription the the
00:11:43
op has talked a lot about it being
00:11:44
simple and budget friendly and usually
00:11:47
that's a real recipe for a high churn
00:11:50
high demand like I want this to do
00:11:52
everything for $20 a month or $200 one
00:11:55
time it's tough so I'm honestly not a
00:11:58
huge fan of this idea but we obviously
00:12:00
want to surface it so you can see the
00:12:02
kinds of things that are available out
00:12:03
there and the problems that people are
00:12:05
looking to solve and I have one more
00:12:07
idea for you but before I get into that
00:12:09
if you're wondering how to find and
00:12:11
validate SAS ideas you should check out
00:12:13
the SAS Launchpad it is the best course
00:12:16
I've ever created it's more than 9 hours
00:12:18
of in-depth lessons covering the entire
00:12:20
Journey from idea conception to product
00:12:23
launch you can get a free sample module
00:12:25
it's 28 minutes of content called the
00:12:28
DNA of a great SAS idea to just get a
00:12:31
little taste of how good this course is
00:12:32
I've never released it anywhere else and
00:12:34
if you go to SAS launch pad. and click
00:12:37
the start free button you can download
00:12:39
that today all right let's dive in to
00:12:41
our sixth and final idea for this video
00:12:44
it's a museum cataloging app the op is
00:12:47
looking for a museum cataloging app
00:12:50
that's price accessible for small
00:12:52
historical societies the main one Past
00:12:55
Perfect is over $1,000 and does not have
00:12:57
full mobile capability
00:12:59
so my question is that $1,000 a month or
00:13:01
a year cuz if you want something for
00:13:04
less than $1,000 a year man it better be
00:13:06
self- serve it better be crazy simple
00:13:09
and it better not need any new features
00:13:11
it should be feature complete after you
00:13:13
know months of development back to the
00:13:14
op's post even though it's a one-time
00:13:17
purchase Oh no this is another one this
00:13:20
is this is so interesting and this shows
00:13:23
you as you walk through ideas on the
00:13:24
internet to pay attention to this kind
00:13:26
of stuff you're hearing my my commentary
00:13:28
as I'm I'm going through it of seeing o
00:13:30
this is a pitfall that I wouldn't want
00:13:32
to sell to this particular Customer
00:13:34
because if they want to pay one time I'm
00:13:36
not interested I'm in to build a
00:13:38
subscription business and so as you do
00:13:40
research and look for ideas you're going
00:13:42
to pick up on these little yellow flags
00:13:44
that I'm trying to point out to you so I
00:13:46
hope hope they're helpful I'm going to
00:13:47
continue with the Ops post even though
00:13:49
it's a one-time purchase a lot of groups
00:13:51
don't have spare computers lying around
00:13:53
or can't access their whole facility
00:13:55
from One desktop computer and then you
00:13:57
need cameras an app that volunteers
00:13:59
could download to use their own mobile
00:14:00
devices and upload to a central database
00:14:03
would help beyond measure an annual or
00:14:04
monthly subscription would be ideal oh
00:14:06
here we go so the person is is open to a
00:14:08
subscription something where it measured
00:14:10
the number of users accessing at once
00:14:12
versus how many devices because
00:14:13
volunteers come and go yeah so just I'm
00:14:16
jumping in here you would want to do
00:14:17
like monthly active users so you don't
00:14:19
do named users you would say however
00:14:21
many users were active in a given month
00:14:22
or given quarter probably a month um
00:14:25
then the pricing would be based on that
00:14:26
back to the op's post it would just need
00:14:28
to be database in items with a few
00:14:30
different options that could export to a
00:14:31
spreadsheet as needed and a place to
00:14:33
upload photos skipping down to the end
00:14:36
past perfect is the most affordable
00:14:38
reputable professional grade software
00:14:40
top level institutions seem to have
00:14:41
custom IT solutions there's a few other
00:14:44
pieces of software on the market but the
00:14:45
last one I saw quote for had a package
00:14:47
in the $3 to $5,000 range which is about
00:14:48
double the discretionary spending budget
00:14:51
at most places I volunteered if an
00:14:53
affordable solution exists it's not
00:14:55
being marketed well to small and medium
00:14:57
nonprofit history organiz ations
00:15:00
obviously this is pretty Niche but
00:15:01
according to the American Association
00:15:03
for state and local history there's
00:15:04
between 3, and 4500 Historical Society
00:15:07
museums spread across the us as always
00:15:09
your mileage may vary do more research
00:15:12
but it's interesting that this person
00:15:13
actually went from one time to saying
00:15:15
I'd be willing to pay a subscription I
00:15:18
hope you enjoyed my walkth through of
00:15:19
those ideas today that we found out in
00:15:21
the wild on the internet and I hope
00:15:23
you'll like And subscribe if you enjoyed
00:15:26
the video if you're interested in
00:15:27
learning how to find more sass ideas
00:15:29
like these go watch this next video
00:15:32
thanks for watching I'll see you next
00:15:33
time
