Ask HN: Need help narrowing down micro-SaaS idea
-B2B for non-technical customers -Something customers already pay for -Preferably something I have some domain knowledge in -Simplified/dumbed-down app for a niche within a lucrative market -Something I can code part-time and get off the ground on my own
I'm considering 2 ideas:
1) Scheduling app for business with shift workers, specifically restaurants
2) Online rent collection without the bloat for small property owners/accidental landlords
Only reason I chose 1 is that I work at a restaurant. We use HotSchedules. It's actually pretty good, space is kind of crowded, but I guess I'll try to differentiate on UI/UX.
2 is something I might use personally too, as now I'm living in a property that uses the "mail a check each month" system for rent. There are tons of solutions out there, but I suspect there's an under-served market of non-technical landlords that find the full-suite solutions overwhelming and just want a "set up once, forget about it" online system. Just a theory.
When I browse the forums, seems like landlords really only care about online rent collection and applicant screening, while the rest are "good to haves" (e.g. maintenance requests, property listing, bookkeeping, etc.). I'm planning to build an MVP with just the online rent collection feature first, charge per transaction, try to differentiate on UI/UX.
Am I crazy to just basically dedicate months to creating stripped-down clones of existing solutions and think that it's possible to get traction regardless? Am I wrong to think that, you don't need to be significantly better (or even better) than existing competitors to get some market share? I'm not trying to "win" here, just trying to build up a good number of customers to live off of.
I guess the essential question is, can I do fewer features with simpler UI and still get some customers for me as a solo founder who wants location-independent income?