Ask HN: How do I come up with monetizable SaaS side project ideas?
Hello everyone, I'm a software developer with an year under my belt. I have been doing some freelance work like developing websites and making react native apps for small businesses owned by my friends. I do love the gigs, but I want to build a Saas that will generate some passive income. I have a couple of ideas but they can only be monetised through ads which is a big no for me. Can you help me find some ideas or some inspiration for a good side project? Thanks in advance.
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Build something around GPT-3. It's still nascent. Only a handful are profitable.
The top one is making $100k MRR in just 7 months → https://twitter.com/deadcoder0904/status/1398141109075730436??lang=en ↗
One sold for ~$1m when it had $20k MRR in 8 months of launch → https://twitter.com/levelsio/status/1377095814963589125?lang=en ↗
Another smaller one sold for $4k with $100 MRR → https://twitter.com/heyyfernanda/status/1398679798281605120?lang=en ↗
There are many others getting funded because of GPT-3 → https://twitter.com/kearonis/status/1378832191413702663?lang=en ↗
So I'd suggest building it around GPT-3 as it's just a bunch of API calls. Make it profitable & sell it if it's a life-changing amount. The hype around GPT-3 is at an all-time high so big exits should be easy.
And if you want ideas, just copy one of the popular apps & offer it with a discount or make it 10x better → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opkHJLVAM4A ↗
Read the Paul Graham essay on ideas → http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html ↗
You need to solve a real problem so you get paid by people. I have been at it for ~4 years with nothing to show for it so my suggestion is to fail fast.
I have hopefully figured out now how to make a SaaS successful so I should be good for now but you don't waste time. Start now. Fail fast. Use SaaS templates like Bedrock & Style it using Tailwind UI so you can focus on the core logic.
My personal opinion: for any project in which you’re the sole resource (engineer, product manager, subject matter expert, UX, QA, etc. etc.), if you want to be remotely successful, you must pick something that you want and will personally use.
If not, you simply won’t have the insight needed to design and build a useful product. Also without meaningful use, you’ll be blind to the product’s shortcomings.
To have the motivation needed to power through the tough times by yourself, e.g. when you’re really tired of working on it or have other competing obligations it should really be something that you’re personally passionate about.
If you build a product based on your assumptions of what other people want without the resources to test these assumptions, you run the risk of making something that isn’t useful to anyone.
1) do the proper research, there are plenty of articles talking about saas side project ideas, like this one https://www.blocshop.io/blog/15-saas-ideas/ ↗
2) check producthunt monthly winners, those are the apps that won during the voting https://www.producthunt.com/time-travel/2021/5 ↗
have a look at my side project https://ideasfilter.com/ ↗
There's plenty of profitable SaaS listed on indiehackers.com , you can take inspiration from there