Happy Trends Tuesday!

Solar eclipse glasses really had their moment in the sun lately. 

The bestselling option on Amazon cost $29.95 and made $492k+ in revenue last month, per Jungle Scout. A store owner in NYC told me he sold 2k+ pairs at $4.99 each.

Sounds like a path of total profit to me.

P.S. There’s still time to share your thoughts in our annual survey. So far 550+ folks have chimed in, and y’all are building some really cool shit. I’ll share more details next week. 

In today's email…

• Businesses need legal tech, a fast-growing market ripe with opportunities
• How to make $150k a year by building apps with no-code tools
• What we’re surfin’, from Discord millionaires to a Chief AI Officer in your ears

Let's dive in!

✨ SPARKLE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

We asked 1.5k+ marketers to spill how they’re winning on socials. Get the 2024 Social Media Trends Report for hot-off-the-press insights and data you can apply to your business.

🚀 WHERE TO BUILD NEXT

All rise — legal tech is having a moment

It takes a lot of apps to run a business these days. In 2023, the average company used 80 SaaS apps in their operations… talk about a tech STACK. 

One category that’s having a growth spurt: Legal tools. 

With 35% year-over-year customer growth and ~$30B in market size, legal tech is dominating the global workplace. Driving the trend are contract management apps like Ironclad, and legal jack-of-all-trades like LegalZoom. 

And then AI entered the chat… 

Source: Google Trends, six-month rolling average

Notable money moves this year include Luminance’s $40m round and Robin AI’s $26m Series B raise. 

If we broaden our definition of “legal tech” to include tools that help with any legal processes — filing, contracts, business formation, and compliance — the trend is even clearer. 

Vanta, a data compliance software, had a whopping 338% YoY customer growth. Its competitor Drata also saw an impressive 90% YoY growth. Both are doing $100m+ in ARR. 

These tools are in demand because they take care of the messy legal shenanigans that most business builders aren’t too keen to dive into. 

Tapping into this need, there are still plenty of opportunities to build. A few ideas: 

1. Think small

Legal tech companies make a big chunk of their revenues from enterprise contracts. Good for them. 

But small businesses and mom-and-pop shops need legal guidance, too. The problem? They don’t have a big tech budget.  

So keep it simple by unbundling complex legal tech into smaller, budget-friendly products: 

⭐️ Review site for legal apps: Compare prices, features, and help SMB owners find the most affordable options. Then you can charge extra for access to Loom video tutorials on how to get the most outta these tools, or upsell by connecting entrepreneurs with vetted lawyers and consulting services.

📑 Themed legal templates: Create pre-made templates like “tax season bundle,” “solopreneur bundle,” or “licensing bundle.” Every business has unique legal requirements, so put your templates into a database categorized by industry. 

💬 Compliance reminders: Design a simple tool that sends out text reminders for important dates and policy updates, so business owners won’t miss a beat. Market it in a cute and friendly way to ease the anxiety around compliance. 

2. Focus on talent

Legal services jobs are at a near-record high, as law firms and businesses vie for talent.

But the wide adoption of AI in legal tech means that future legal professionals might look very different from today. 

Source: Reuters

Opportunities to capitalize on this growing need for new talent: 

👨‍🎓 More students are applying to law schools in 2024, but it remains a costly path. Provide apps or services to help law students manage their credit, find loans with lower rates, or apply for scholarships.

⚙️ Create bootcamps and certification programs for legal tech specialists, a job category that grew 200% in demand this year. Focus on skills like modernizing law firm operations, compliance, or even fine-tuning large language models to perform legal tasks.

You can also zoom in on specific use cases of legal tech, such as LLC formation services. Keep reading to see how you can take the "X in a box" idea to these niche but growing fields. 

🔎 OUR LATEST OBSESSION

How to make $150k with a no-code app

Remember when you couldn’t make an app without knowing how to code? 

Major FOMO for non-techies who have cool ideas. 

It’s a problem because most of us… 

• Don't have years to learn that new skill when we're trying to put ideas out into the world, fast
• Don't have a $50k budgeted to pay a developer
• Are cautious about giving a technical co-founder 50% of the business to code the app upfront.

Fortunately, the rising popularity of no-code and low-code tools changed the game. 

Source: Giphy

The global low-code market is projected to grow to $36.4B in 2027, and by 2025, 70% of new business apps will use low-code/no-code technologies. 

A story to inspire you

Tara Reed is a startup founder who swears by the no-code way of life. And it works – she made $150k in the first year of launching her first app, Kollecto, an idea she came up with while working 9 to 5 at Microsoft. 

Having recently moved to Seattle and decorating her new home, she wanted to build an app that hunted the internet for art and matched people to affordable artwork (under $3k) based on their taste. 

Tara built the first version of the app in three weeks with no code, which made her $35k in six months. 

And money kept rolling in: 

• She got her first $100k investment from 500 Global, a prestigious tech accelerator in Silicon Valley
• She made $150k in revenue in the first year
• Then she raised her first $300k from angel investors

She was also featured in the Entrepreneur magazine for the first time. Not too shabby for a “year one as an entrepreneur” story.

Now, Tara's in a mood to pass down that wisdom in the form of a free online workshop. 

If you got the app building itch, you don’t want to miss it. She’ll show you how to find a good idea, launch a software business using AI & no code, and live demo it using different tools. 

🗂️ OPEN TABS

👾 Idea: How to make $20m on Discord (without becoming a streamer)

🧘 From X: Greg Isenberg's list of inward-looking questions to kick off Q2

🧠 Tips: How to come up with high-performing blog ideas, consistently

🎧 Tune in: Want to grow your business with AI? Check out The Next Wave, a new podcast hosted by your Chief AI Officers.