🗞 What's New: Unbundle this for thousands of product ideas

Unbundle the technology that powers a website, then create separate products:

• Each technology represents a distinct market segment with its own unique needs and opportunities. Separate these "building blocks," and sell them.
• Substack is the new branding frontier for founder-influencers. You can reach new people, own your audience, and monetize.
• $108K MRR with a fintech product. Sumit Kumar landed his dream job and welcomed a new baby, then burned out and quit to do his own thing.

Join Memberful, the ultimate content monetization platform. #ad

from the Trendy Software Ideas newsletter by Darko

BuiltWith is one of the companies we featured in the Indie Hackers ideas database. BuiltWith is a bunch of micro-products bundled together, and it's making over $1M in revenue per month:

The building blocks

I recently posted about social media scheduling tools.

The key building block of a social media scheduling tool is the social media platform it supports: X, Threads, Instagram, Facebook, you name it.

There are no more than 10 big social media platforms. So, if you were to create distinct products from a product like Buffer, you'd probably create:

• A separate product for scheduling on Instagram.
• A separate product for scheduling on X.
• A separate product for scheduling on [insert another popular social media platform here].

BuiltWith is a SaaS that allows you to analyze the technologies that power a website. Unlike social media tools, a tool like BuiltWith has thousands of different key building blocks.

The keyword here is "technologies." Each "technology" is a key building block, in the same way that, in our previous example, each "social media platform" is a key building block.

According to BuiltWith, it tracks 2.5K+ e-commerce technologies across 26M+ e-commerce websites.

For a social media scheduling tool, you could create a maximum of maybe 10 individual products. But, if you take a product like BuiltWith, you could potentially create over 2.5K products.

Each technology = different product idea + different audience

Let's take Shopify as an example. Why would someone care to look for websites that are powered by Shopify?

• They might have a marketing agency that targets e-commerce site owners.
• To advertise a Shopify app.
• To advertise a theme made for Shopify.

Now, let's take websites that run on Google Analytics. Why would someone be interested in targeting websites that run Google Analytics?

• To provide custom marketing analytics.
• They might have an alternative analytics software.
• They might have a software that connects Google Analytics to other popular software.

My point is that the audience for each technology could be vastly different. Each technology represents a distinct market segment, with its own unique needs and opportunities.

People who are looking for Shopify store owners are (often) quite different from the people who are looking for Google Analytics site owners.

The micro-product idea

Take a technology and create a cheaper micro-product around it. BuiltWith is quite expensive. Here are the company's monthly plans:

You could take one technology (or two, or three), and try to sell an updated list of sites that use the technology, to a specific target audience. Here are a few ideas:

• Sites using WordPress: Sell this list to WordPress plugin developers, theme creators, web agencies, etc.

• Sites using Stripe: Sell this to payment solution providers, fintech startups, etc.

• Sites using Zendesk: Sell this to customer service SaaS providers, customer experience consultants, agencies that provide customer support staff, etc.

To get an idea of who you could sell to, you could input a prompt into ChatGPT or Claude: "I'm trying to sell a list of websites that run on [technology]. What is the potential target audience for such a list?"

The key idea here is to "unbundle" BuiltWith by making each technology list a separate product.

Taking it a step further

You could also create a small SaaS where people pay a small amount each month or year, and you provide them with an updated list. The list could be updated monthly, weekly, or daily.

For example, WordPress plugin developers can get an updated list of new websites that just started running on WordPress.

BuiltWith charges close to $300 per month for access to two technologies. PublicWWW is a source code search engine that lets you input a "signature" (each technology uses a different HTML, headers, and CSS, so you can recognize when a site is using it), and get a list of websites that use that signature. Here are a few examples.

The important thing is, unlike BuiltWith, they don't charge you by the number of technologies you export.

Another (albeit more expensive) alternative to PublicWWW is NerdyData. It also doesn't charge by the number of technologies you export. Both of these companies go one level lower from what BuiltWith is doing:

• BuiltWith already figured out the signatures, and sells you a ready-made list of sites that use those signatures (i.e. technologies).

• These source code search engines allow you to figure out the signatures on your own (which is not hard at all), and come up with your own lists.

If you want to go one level lower, you also have open source libraries like WhatWeb, which is essentially a self-hosted version of BuiltWith. It supports over 1.5K "plugins" (i.e. signatures) that identify the technologies that different sites are using.

Monitor trendy technologies

There's always a new technology on the block. BuiltWith has a trends page that you can use to identify some of these technologies.

New technology means a new supply of websites using that technology. That means new demand for people who are looking to target sites using that technology. That could be either competitors of that technology, products or services in an adjacent niche, etc.

Monitor trendy technologies, and be the first to sell a list of sites using them!

Discuss this story, or subscribe to Trendy Software Ideas for more.

This issue is sponsored by Memberful

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from The Hustle newsletter

The best part of my job is being surrounded by content-obsessed folks. They're pros at creating great content, and also at sniffing it out.

So, when two of them pointed me to Substack, I paid attention.

*Source: Google Trends, six-month rolling average

Apparently, the self-publishing platform is enjoying a fresh boost in popularity. Many founders are seeing it as a better alternative to social media.

Free People's director of brand marketing, Libby Strachan, told Glossy that "Substack is the new Instagram."

What's old is new again

Substack was founded to help content creators, writers, and journalists connect with their readers in a way that wasn't possible in traditional media.

They get to be their own publisher, and build up a loyal audience that's willing to pay them directly for their work.

What's interesting now is that a wave of D2C founders are rediscovering this platform as their personal branding outlet.

Melanie Masarin of Ghia, the vintage chic non-alcoholic brand, has a Substack newsletter where she shares "founder musings," and other snippets of her life.

*Source: Substack

It's a more curated take on "building in public," where founders get to connect with potential customers in a more intimate way.

They write like influencers, sharing what they wear, what they eat, and where they travel to. They plug their products when the time is right.

The writing is clear: As social media and short videos divide consumer's attention into a million different pieces, blogging is back in full swing to ensure that you and your brand get seen.

Is it working?

Yes. Creators own the audience they earn on Substack. These are real email lists (leads) that can be taken with them to any other platform.

It's also easier to monetize than social media, even with a way smaller subscriber base.

Say you charge $50 per annual subscription. 2K fans will get you to $100K ARR. Not too shabby.

And, if folks fall under your influence, they're more likely to buy your products, too. This could work wonders for D2C brands in fashion, beauty, wellness, or food and beverages, where people are more prone to follow the advice of a founder-influencer.

But...

...where does your personal brand end, and your "brand" brand start?

D2C investors are concerned about their ROI if a company's founder is constantly posting on Substack about their life and musings. Sometimes it can even mask the fact that the company isn't doing so hot.

*Source: Digiday

Whether Substack will work for you depends on your goal.

If you're fully invested in your business, and see it as a new channel to meet customers, go for it.

If you're there for personal clout, or to use it as a backup plan in case your business doesn't pan out...it most likely won't pan out.

Subscribe to The Hustle newsletter for more.

from the Trendy Software Ideas newsletter

🤖 ChatGPT's mobile app just had its biggest month yet.

💻 10 advanced strategy ideas for Google Ads.

💲 Link to your product here. Our most affordable ad.

🔬 Copywriting hacks backed by science.

🤔 Can you prove the value of a view through conversion?

🦾 The real rising star of the Olympics? Technology.

Check out Trendy Software Ideas to discover more software ideas inspired by recent news.

by James Fleischmann

Sumit Kumar is bringing in $108K MRR with his fintech product, Parqet, and it's only available in three countries.

Quitting his dream job

I started coding Parqet from my couch in December 2019. I was Head of Engineering at a German car-sharing company, building on nights and weekends.

Then, I became a Solutions Architect at Stripe, gaining high-level technical experience and good insights into B2B sales. That was my dream job.

But I wanted freedom in multiple dimensions of my daily life, and only indie hacking could enable that. Also, I burned out hard. My life was all work. My baby was born, I was growing my business, and I was working full-time. It was brutal.

Two years in, I couldn't do it anymore. If you look at my YouTube videos from back then, I looked sick. This hustle time is necessary, but one can only do that for so long.

So, I left Stripe.

Monetizing a fintech product

Parqet is a portfolio tracker focused on the DACH (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) market. It aggregates, analyzes, and visualizes investment portfolios of mainly retail investors. So, whoever invests in stocks, ETFs, crypto, other securities, precious metals, or cash can use Parqet to get deep insights into their net worth.

It's a fintech product, but I have no background in finance. I had to study and learn how to calculate portfolio performances, and things like that.

We opted for a freemium model: A free basic version with deeper analysis, starting at $10+ per month. The subscriptions of our B2C customers are the main source of revenue.

A freemium model is great when users need a bit of time to see the benefit of your product, or maybe only need your product after they've progressed along their journey.

Building in public

I built Parqet in public, livestreaming late night coding sessions, marketing strategies, and outage recoveries. There are hours on YouTube of me building it, fixing stuff, and sharing my thoughts.

Overall, our transparency has been a big advantage. It helped us to build trust and a strong relationship with users, and we created an awesome community.

Everyone knows what we're doing, why we're doing it, and what our business model is. Every Friday, I do a livestream, giving users a preview of what we're working on, and answering any questions they might have.

It didn't really help with user acquisition, but it definitely helped in building a team. Most of the team followed me on my journey in some way or another, and chose to join when an opportunity opened up.

Building in public is worth doing when you start out. However, after about $50K MRR, this advantage is overshadowed by the competitive insights you're giving to copycats. That's why you see most founders closing off their information at some point around that mark.

The risk of copycats

The public nature of Parqet, and its success, quickly spawned competitors, including venture-backed companies. We were at a huge disadvantage; we have way less cash, marketing prowess, and reach.

However, thanks to my amazing team, we are still number one. How?

1. We focused on our core unique selling proposition.

2. We tried to counter their marketing efforts by working with influencers and news outlets, offering discounts, launching community features, and more.

3. We invested in long-term customer acquisition channels, like SEO, YouTube, and an email list. That means we can always acquire new users, even if ad spaces on social platforms are filled with competitors.

Parting advice

Focus on the main things that drive your business forward. Nobody cares about your logo, your product name, or your business cards. Also, that new feature probably isn't going to help.

More often than not, your focus should be on marketing, even before the product is built.

Discuss this story.

by Tweetmaster Flex

I post the tweets indie hackers share the most. Here's today's pick:

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Special thanks to Jay Avery for editing this issue, to Gabriella Federico for the illustrations, and to Darko, Cyan Zhong, and James Fleischmann for contributing posts. —Channing