4 microSaaS ideas you can build to make $100k/month

Key Concepts

• Parental control franchise
• Business in a box
• AI and scarcity
• Micro startups
• Screenshot-based podcast insights
• Meme generation from long-form content
• Founder worldview
• Product Polish
• Distribution

Parental Control Franchise: Doctor Screen Time

• Problem: Parents struggle to manage their children's screen time effectively due to complex parental control interfaces and kids outsmarting the systems.
• Solution: A franchise model where trained individuals ("screen time police" or "doctors") visit homes, assess family screen time habits, set rules, and configure devices.
• Business Model:
  • One-time setup fee (potentially around $2,000).
  • Recurring revenue through affiliate partnerships, recommending age-appropriate apps, credit cards, and tracking services (e.g., Greenlight, Circle).
• Marketing Strategy:
  • Start with a media business (doctorscreentime.com) to build an audience of parents seeking screen time solutions.
  • Create educational content to attract 100,000 followers.
• Inspiration: Dr. Becky (Good Inside) built a successful media business that evolved into a subscription-based app.
• Zumba Comparison: The Zumba model, with licensed instructors paying for music and choreography, offers a capital-light approach with a physical presence.

Business in a Box: Podcasting and Crafting

• Podcasting in a Box:
  • Inspired by lensrentals.com, which rents podcasting equipment.
  • Missing element: On-site setup and optimization by a "podcast doctor."
  • Opportunity: Rebrand as podcastinabox.com and offer setup services.
• Crafting in a Box:
  • Addresses the scarcity of tactile experiences in an AI-driven world.
  • Inspired by Happy Medium, an art cafe in New York.
  • Business Model: Partner with local artists and Etsy sellers to provide supplies and educational materials.
  • Target restaurants during off-hours or homes for workshops.
  • Brand positioning: Modern, cool consumer brand focused on disconnecting and creating with hands.
  • Status symbol: "I disconnected from the information flow and I like did something with my hands."
  • Addresses the automation of white-collar jobs by AI, highlighting the value of trade skills.

Lambda School for Tradespeople

• Concept: Apply the Lambda School model (zero tuition, revenue share) to train and place tradespeople (e.g., painters, landscapers, plumbers, electricians, woodworkers).
• Problem: Shortage of skilled tradespeople due to retiring workforce and stigma around trade jobs.
• Solution:
  • Train individuals in specific trades.
  • Find them jobs.
  • Take a cut of their income.
• Branding: Elevate the status of trade jobs through compelling branding.
• Customer Acquisition: Arm tradespeople with customer acquisition tools (Facebook ads, website creation).
• Focus: Start by licensing people to companies that are actually hiring instead of them doing this like freelance to start.

Founder Worldview in an AGI World

• Argument: In a world where AI can do almost everything, the founder's worldview, motivation, vision, and intention become critical differentiators.
• Supporting Evidence: Human decisions are often based on emotions rather than purely utilitarian factors.
• Quote: "The motivation and the vision and the intention behind something is something you can't fake."

Micro Startups: Podcast Magic (Podshot)

• Problem: Insights from podcasts are difficult to capture and share due to the audio format.
• Existing Solutions:
  • Podcast player apps with highlighting features (low adoption).
  • Manual transcription and copy-pasting (time-consuming).
• Solution: Podcast Magic (potential name: Podshot) - a micro app that captures insights from podcasts using screenshots.
• Process:
  1. User takes a screenshot of Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
  2. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) extracts podcast name, episode, and timestamp.
  3. Speech-to-text identifies the surrounding text.
  4. The app creates a library of insights with transcript and audio clip.
• Value Proposition: Makes podcast listening more productive and shareable.
• Distribution: Leverage the podcasting ecosystem for distribution.
• Key Insight: Screenshots are the new bookmarks.
• Micro Startup Strategy:
  • Unbundle a larger startup vision into smaller, focused micro startups.
  • Prioritize micro startups with the highest likelihood of going viral and the lowest effort estimate.
• Quote: "The future of building startups is not by building a startup it's by building a micro startup."

Meme Generation from Long-Form Content

• Problem: Long-form content (articles, presentations) struggles to reach a wide audience in a time-crunched world.
• Solution: A GPT wrapper trained on a curated library of culturally relevant memes that converts long-form content into memes.
• Value Proposition: Enables content creators to communicate their ideas in a funny, short-form, and culturally relevant way.
• Process:
  1. User pastes a link, types text, or uploads a file.
  2. The app ingests the content and generates embeddings.
  3. The app understands the content and generates a meme.
• Key Considerations:
  • Training the model on culturally relevant memes.
  • Ensuring the memes are timely and appropriate for the target audience.
• Inspiration: Google's NotebookLM, which gained traction through its ability to convert documents into podcasts.

Feedback and Intuition

• Argument: Founders need to balance feedback with their own intuition and vision.
• Counterpoint: Overreliance on feedback can lead to bland, generic products.
• Strategy:
  • Take less feedback and focus on deep thinking and intuition.
  • Create products with more "edge" that may polarize some people.
• Testing Positioning: Use ads to test different positioning strategies and see what resonates with the audience.
• Quote: "There's no room today for like the Bland you just have to like stand for something and you can't do that like if you take feedback from everybody you're reverting to the mean."

Conclusion

The conversation explores various startup ideas, emphasizing the importance of focusing on specific problems, leveraging existing trends (like the desire for tactile experiences), and building micro startups that can go viral. It also highlights the need for founders to balance feedback with their own intuition and vision, especially in an AI-driven world where differentiation is key. The ideas presented range from practical solutions like parental control franchises and tradesperson training programs to innovative concepts like screenshot-based podcast insights and meme generation from long-form content.