I built a tool that turns CSV exports into shareable dashboards
Hey IH đ
I just launched a small product called Introspect.
During both my corporate job and self-employment journey as a consultant, I kept facing the same problem:
- I was working with messy data exports(sales, ops, finance), but turning that export into a clean update takes longer than the analysis itself.
I built Introspect to focus on a really simple and elegant solution that does a few things really well:
â Upload a CSV
â Get some charts (trend + breakdown)
â A readable table sample
â Insights written directly from the numbers
â A shareable dashboard link
I was also keen to validate quickly so I dind't want to have acocunt creation, account management etc. so itâs pay-per-dashboard, no signup required and Iâm especially looking for feedback on:
â Whether the insights feel genuinely useful
â Pricing ($16 per dashboard)
â What types of exports youâd try this on
If youâre curious, hereâs the link:
đ https://introspectdigital.com
Happy to answer questions about the build, setup, ideas and launch.
This scratches a real itch. I'm building dev tools myself and the "pay-per-use, no signup" model is exactly how I think about it â people want to solve a problem, not manage another account.
The tech stack choices make sense (Next.js + Redis + OpenAI + Recharts). Curious: how are you handling edge cases where the AI misinterprets column semantics? Like when a CSV has "Q1 2025" as a text column vs a date-parseable format.
One thought on pricing: $16 per dashboard might be perfect for consultants who bill by the hour, but for indie hackers running quick internal checks, that's where a free tier (limited rows, watermarked) could help build word-of-mouth before they're ready to pay.
Congrats on the launch! Really like the constraint-driven approach (CSV â charts â insights â shareable link). The no-account, pay-per-dashboard decision makes a lot of sense for validation. Happy to share feedback once I run a few exports through it.
This instance is a great example of a small useful tool versus a big analytics app. ~
In my experience of working with many CSV exports (from Stripe, HubSpot, and various internal ops) the annoying part is never the analysis but rather the 20â30 minutes of cleaning, pivoting, and formatting to make something presentable to a client or teammate.
The decision for âpay per dashboard, no signupâ is interesting. It greatly reduces the friction for one-time use cases like.
This aligns closely with the actual job-to-be-done.
I want to know how you treat messy headers / inconsistent column names. If you ask me thatâs where most CSV tools fall apart and where real value could be.
Moreover, $16 per dashboard seems fair if the output is really presentation-ready. If it saves me even 15 minutes of spreadsheet time, it has already paid off.
Consultants, indie founders and ops folks will quietly love this because it kills a very specific, persistent annoyance.
That's really cool! Is it $16 per dashboard, for life or per month? Do you store the data or is it a once and done type thing? Is it AI powered? Sorry for all the questions. Really interesting project. Love the idea!
Love the no-signup approach. I've been experimenting with the same philosophy on a side project â the less friction to value, the better.
$16 per dashboard feels reasonable for the consultant use case you described (where time = money). Though I wonder if there's a power user segment that would want a subscription â like finance teams running weekly reports.
One question: do you have any data retention? If I upload something today and share the link, how long does it stay live?
This is a nice idea! Curious about the setup?
Thanks for the comment. So the tech stack is fairly minimal. Next.js, Redis and Vercel for hosting etc. I use some other packages such as OpenAI, Recharts and Puppeteer to handle the insight generation and PDF exports etc. Then finally using Stripe to handle payments. Hope that helps and thanks again for checking out Introspect.
Appreciate the breakdown clean stack. Nice to see Redis + Next.js keeping things lean. Best of luck with Introspect đ
I really like the concept youâre building here. I work as an FP&A Director at a CPA firm, and dealing with inconsistent, messy datasets is a daily reality for usâso the core problem youâre addressing is very real and well chosen.
One consideration I had is that tools like Claude now allow me to achieve similar outcomes (and in some cases go further) at a relatively low monthly cost. That naturally raises the bar for differentiation. A few areas that might meaningfully strengthen your value proposition would be clarity around data limits (for example, the maximum number of rows or file size supported) and an emphasis on accuracy and consistency of calculated values, as reliability is critical for professional users.
From a positioning standpoint, this feels especially well-suited for solo entrepreneurs, consultants, or small teams, since most established firms already have security and reporting frameworks in place. That said, adding features such as secure embedding or shareable outputs could significantly broaden its appeal, particularly for users who need to present results externally.
Overall, I think youâre solving a legitimate pain point, and with a bit more focus on scale, precision, and delivery, this could become a very compelling tool for the right audience.
Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed comment, a lot of great insights here. Definitely will make it clearer (and test đ ) the data limitations with expansive datasets. Currently you can share the outputs - each dashboard generated has it's own unique link that can be shared (here's an example - https://www.introspectdigital.com/r/d08a2f37-ca43-4712-a515-51b0a98b3afd). You can also export to PDF. I definitely agree with you that the use cases should be enterprise but sole consultants, entrepreneurs etc. Thanks again, really appreciate the time and consideration. Hope you will try Introspect at some stage.
Love this. Iâve hit the same pain so many times â the âanalysisâ takes 10 minutes, but turning a CSV into something presentable takes an hour.
The no-signup + pay-per-dashboard model makes a lot of sense here because this is exactly the kind of task people just want to finish and share. Curious to try this with sales and ops exports I deal with regularly.
Hi, thanks so much for the kind words. Let me know if you have any further feedback once you've given it a try. What do you think is missing from the current version and/or would like to see that you're not seeing.
you will struggle to get this off the ground. people need to see value before commiting to a purchase.
Thanks for the feedback. I would be keen to know what value you think is missing. Is it the messaging? Is it the value prop?
i would push the payment further down the user journey. uploading a CSV then being asked for payment before you see what your getting for your 16 dolllars doesnt seem optimal. i expect a low conversion rate
it is best idea
Thanks a lot đ
This resonates a lot. CSV exports are one of those things that feel empowering at first, but quickly turn into a maintenance burden once the data starts changing regularly.
One thing Iâve noticed is that the pain isnât just visualization - itâs keeping derived numbers trustworthy over time as new rows get added, formats change, or assumptions evolve. Once you cross that line, even "simple" spreadsheets stop feeling simple.
Curious how youâre thinking about ongoing updates vs one-off exports. Is the goal more shareable snapshots, or something people keep coming back to as their data evolves?
Quick heads-up: I tried the demo link and it returned 404 for me - not sure if itâs just on my end.
Hey, thanks so much for taking the time to provide feedback and will fix the 404. I haven't thought too much about the long term plan for this as was simply validating at this stage, but a few ideas would be to create something that could evolve as the data evolves. So that may involve giving more flexibility to the user to change layouts, customise and fine tune the insights that are generated, save dashboards for updating later etc. But ultimately I would always keep it as a micro tool that is quick and elegant, aimed mainly at consultants to, to as you rightly put it, create shareable snapshots and get insights and suggestions quickly without rebuilding charts, data etc.
This is a nice idea, especially the no-signup + pay-per-dashboard combo, that alone removes a lot of friction.
One thing Iâd watch closely as you validate: who feels embarrassed or exposed by raw CSVs today?
Thatâs usually where willingness to pay spikes.
From experience, CSV --> chart isnât the real pain. The pain is:
âI need to send this to a client/boss and not look sloppyâ
âI need to explain what matters without spending an hour writing contextâ
âI donât want follow-up questions because the story wasnât clearâ
Thatâs why the insights matter more than the charts.
A few concrete thoughts:
Pricing at $16 feels very reasonable for client-facing or investor updates, but might feel high for internal one-off curiosity
The biggest unlock might be framing dashboards as âready-to-send updatesâ rather than analysis
Exports Iâd expect people to try first: Stripe, HubSpot, GA4, payroll/cost exports, support tickets
Curious whether youâre seeing more solo operators vs consultants using this so far and feels like consultants might anchor your early traction.
Hey, thanks so much for taking the time to provide such a detailed response. Makes a lot of sense. I think you're probably right that a bit of a reframing might convert better. As you rightly said, the pain point is mostly on the time-save and presentability of an Introspect dashboard compared to something else. The target I think this works well for is probably consultants just due to the time pressures, balancing of workload etc. that comes with the job.
Consultants are a natural early target because they feel the time and presentation pressure acutely. Framing the dashboards as âready-to-send, polished updates in minutesâ instead of just visualizations will probably resonate strongly with them.
One idea that usually works well at this stage: a quick testimonial or example on the landing page that shows how much time a consultant saved or how clean the dashboard looked for a client. Even a single concrete number (âsaved 2 hours preparing weekly client reportsâ) can make the pain real for potential buyers.
And are you planning to gather a few of those early success stories from your first users? That could accelerate conversion and also start shaping your narrative for broader adoption.