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Software Ideas

Product Update

For premium members, there is no new issue today. Each quarter, we take one week off to give the team a break, re-energize, and focus on how we can make Software Ideas even more valuable to you.

So today, instead of our premium newsletter, I thought I'd write a bit about the BIG changes that are happening at Software Ideas. Starting with our new, cleaned-up newsletter template.

This update goes far beyond a facelift - we looked at every possible angle we could think of for how we can make the newsletter more valuable to readers.

After spending time reflecting, we decided that we wanted to address the most common piece of negative feedback we receive:

"I love the work you're doing, but I just don't have time to read it!"

So, if that's you, here are the three most significant changes you'll see in next week's issue:

1) A focus on opportunities, not companies.

Software Ideas has always been focused on research-based reporting. We look at companies that are doing well in an established market, investigate the niches, sub-niches, and customer personas that make up that market, and then discuss an opportunity where these larger companies fail to connect with potential users.

Under-the-hood, our research method isn't changing. We're still dedicated to keeping our opportunities focused on established software markets, not off-the-top ideas that don't have any basis in reality.

However, this approach wasn't very enjoyable to read. If you're looking for a software opportunity, you don't want to read 5,000 words about the market before even knowing what the MVP for this opportunity would look like!

So, we flipped it.

Example of the new opportunity layout

Opportunities in the new layout are focused directly on the opportunity itself. We start by showing a prototype example of the product we'll be building (more on that later), with a brief explanation of the pain points that led us to this opportunity.

If it sounds like an opportunity you'd be interested in, then you can take the time to read the in-depth market analysis to get a better understanding of the competitive landscape, why companies/users are buying this type of software, and so on.

This is a far more natural way to read the Software Ideas newsletter, and hopefully, it makes it easier to skim and find opportunities that interest you each week.

2) Improved MVP and Marketing Channel sections

"Where are people getting stuck?"

That's the question we've been asking ourselves over the past week as we've been working on the new format.

At Software Ideas, we're big believers that many founders fail not because they failed to build the product, but because they never found the right marketing channel for them.

In previous newsletters, we would include 2-5 marketing channels that are a good fit for an opportunity, but we saw that founders wouldn't necessarily take action on these channels when they started working on an opportunity.

I think this is one of the places that we can really add a ton of value, especially for newer founders that haven't brought a product to market before, or don't understand how to work with a particular marketing channel.

With that in mind, we're creating the Software Ideas' Marketing Channel Guides, exclusive members-only content that explains how to get started with a number of common marketing channels for SaaS companies, including:

Community Outreach
Building in Public
Referral / Affiliate Programs
Much more to come

These guides will explain the "how" of using these marketing channels, so we can keep each opportunity focused on "why" a given channel makes sense for the opportunity.

These guides will be released on the membership site in the coming weeks, and we'll link to them directly in the newsletter whenever they are relevant!

But that's just the beginning:

For marketing channels where we can provide data, we'll be providing data whenever possible.

That means we'll be adding keyword data whenever we recommend content marketing as a channel, just like in the screenshot above.

For paid advertising, we'll offer recommendations for specific keywords to start with.
For sponsorships, you'll get a list of sponsors that might be a good fit for the opportunity.
For cold outreach, we'll even provide a starter lead list to help you narrow down the ideal companies to reach out to!

Basically, we want to double down on the value we're providing when it comes to marketing channels. This is a large blocker for a lot of readers, and we hope that by adding this level of data and research that we can make it easier than ever for readers to start building!

This doesn't just stop at marketing channels, however. We're also making the MVP section far more valuable too:

In future issues, the MVP section will have some sort of demo or example like the GIF above, to help visualize the opportunity and provide clarity.

It won't always be possible to create a front-end prototype of an opportunity, but we're going to build these as often as we can.

I think this will go a long way towards helping readers understand and get excited for opportunities, particularly if you're a visual person.

3) Dropping from three opportunities per newsletter to two.

When Software Ideas first started, I had the idea to do three opportunities per week.

But back then, we weren't doing even one-third of the amount of research, investigation, and reporting that we do today.

You can see what the first issue of Software Ideas looked like here, if you're curious.

The first opportunity ever written was only 291 words. By contrast, last week's newsletter was 8,563 words!

As you can imagine, it's become much more difficult to keep up the 3/week pace as we've increased the quality of the writing.

What's more, when Software Ideas first started, we had no newsletter archive, meaning that people were paying $19/month for the weekly newsletter by itself.

Today, when you sign up for the same $19/month, you immediately get access to over 200 market reports.

In other words, there's no longer the same need to push out as many opportunities per week, since readers can easily go back to an old issue if they're craving more opportunities.

With all this in mind, I've decided to do one of the things that always terrifies you as a founder, and drop the number of opportunities we're releasing weekly down by one.

There's simply no way we could make these awesome changes if we were still beholden to the 3/week decision I made back when opportunities were only a couple hundred words long. My hope is that the increase in quality and effort that our team is putting into the marketing channels, MVP, and market research more than makes up for this change.

Of course, I'll be keeping a close eye on member feedback to make sure that readers are happy with the change! I truly believe this will be an improvement to the newsletter, but at the end of the day, it's up to readers to decide.

There are a ton more cool things in the works as well - here's a sneak peek:

A new affiliate program - aimed to help less-experienced founders learn how to market and sell a product without needing to build one themselves first (hit reply to join our pilot program!).
An improved archive - lets you filter through ALL past opportunities to find exactly what you're looking for. Find all the micro-SaaS opportunities we've written, all the reports in the eCommerce software market, or only opportunities that are b2b.
Marketing Channel Guides - members-only content that offers an in-depth look at how to leverage a popular marketing channel.
Founder Flubs - A free series on the most common mistakes of founders, and how to avoid them. Issue #1 is available now!

All of this is coming over the next quarter, so I hope that you're as excited as I am!

Kevin Conti
CEO of Software Ideas

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Teaser: The new Software Ideas newsletter! ⭐

Software Ideas

Product Update

Older messages

Software Ideas Preview Newsletter | Issue #70! ⭐

Market Reports: FullStory, Gem, and Sisu Data! ⭐

Market Analysis: Intercom, Calendly, and Grin! ⭐

Software Ideas Preview Newsletter | Issue #67! ⭐

Opportunities in eLearning, micro-SaaS, and AI! ⭐

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