Steal SaaS ideas!

It's okay to steal ideas. Everyone does it. Artists, engineers, scientists. They all "borrow" ideas. Here's a good way to do it: after you steal an idea, make it better for a specific group of people. This is called "niching down." It's how small startups beat big tech

Examples:

Stripe: Payments for developers (stolen from PayPal)
Intercom: Customer support for tech companies (stolen from Zendesk)
Zoom: Video calls for remote teams (stolen from Skype)
NotionHQ: Team tools for startups (stolen from Evernote)
ConvertKit: Email for bloggers (stolen from Aweber)
Canva: Photoshop, but for non-designers.
Figma: Browser design for teams (also from Adobe Photoshop)
Gumroad: Digital sales for creators (stolen from Shopify)
Shopify: Magento but for SMB.

Why niche down? It's easier to sell. You know exactly who needs your product and how to make it better for them.

Don't worry about copying. It is ethically OK. If you focus on a specific group, not just copy-cat, you are doing a good thing.

I stole the idea for my first SaaS (unicorn platform) from existing landing page builders. I just made it easier for busy SaaS founders. I'm doing the same thing for paracast.io — I'm stealing Canva's idea and niching it down to startups only.

Want to steal a SaaS idea? Do this:

Find a SaaS you like.
Pick a group of people it's not perfect for (hint: read testimonials on g2 or trustpilot to find it).
Make it perfect for them.

Originally posted on my 𝕏: https://x.com/alexanderisorax/status/1813916250130522574