Tell IH: I am going to help 10 Indie Hackers launch their productized service.

Hi, Robin!

This is an awesome idea considering the amount of knowledge I'd learn from you about the industry of productized services.

First time I got involved with productized services was when I read your IH post about reaching $10K MRR with ManyPixels. It was probably the first practical evidence for me that productized services could be done the indie way.

Regarding my skills I can tell that I've spent so many years learning and monetizing areas such as programming, design, selling, content creation and the overall process of product development. There are a lot of research areas of possible opportunities I'd like to discuss with you.

For the record I have been in the industry of automation for about 2 years. This is the first opportunity for me to get into the practical productized business. Consider me investing every goddamn thing into this project.

Looking forward for working and learning with you and the group!

Hey, this sounds awesome.

I am a developer. I want to start a productized service related to prototyping mobile apps. Its very quick to produce a prototype using React Native and I feel like it would be very useful to have a service that allows a pay per screen model with addons for prototyping mobile apps.

The value for the customer would be saving time, saving money, quicker to getting feedback on the product, and more.

I work as a product manager for Webspdy, and we just started three months ago. Our team specialises in WordPress and python-Django framework. We are interested in providing affordable recurring WP maintenance subscription and my role is to find a business model around it.

The market we are going after is exceptionally vast. To put it into perspective: according to w3Techs' report, more than 35 million plus websites use self-hosted WordPress installations.

The ideal customer for me would be

a. WordPress development agencies & WordPress freelancers- who can outsource their clients' through a white-labeled program and concentrate on the job they love - create better websites.

b. individual website owners- who can't afford to hire/retain a full-time WordPress professional.

Currently I'm focused on customer conversations- initial interviews with various WP site owners, and your insight [ref#1] has convinced me to pursue web development agencies to begin with.

With your mentorship I believe I will be able to understand the customer cohorts better and improve on customer acquisition channels.

ref #1 : https://www.facebook.com/groups/192719694795609/permalink/228767981190780/?comment_id=228768951190683

Hey Robin,

Love this, that would be so helpful.

I have a number of partially validated Productized Service ideas, I've done plenty of research but having that extra push to move forward with one would be amazing.

I want to try and use a skill I already have to help busy people with a pain point in their lives and deliver an amazing service.

The reason I want to start a Productized Service is that the product scope is neatly defined, there are processes that make serving customers easier over time and it builds MRR which is more reliable than getting new clients every month.

I'm sure I could get profitable quickly with some guidance. :)

Hi Robin!

I'm a Chinese full-stack developer and a big productivity fans. I have a side project called Anyshortcut (https://anyshortcut.com/ ). It's a Shortcut as a Service business. Now it provides a Chrome and Firefox extension to help people open their website blaze fastly with the customizable shortcuts. What more, I'll open source an Alfred Workflow version and CLI-app ( written in Rust) on Github (https://github.com/anyshortcut ). Now it has near to 3% yearly subscribed users after launch 5 months.

I desire to work with you. Thanks for your kind offering.

Cheers,

Dennis

Hi Robin,

I have heard and read about ManyPixels, and have read a lot about the virtues of productising over the last couple of years.

I am a journalist turned editorial consultant. One of the main things I do is serve as content guy at a tech PR firm. I help their clients (technology firms of all kinds) plan strategies for and write content - mostly viewpoint articles that elevate their status as industry thinkers, and mostly for media outlets; though sometimes bigger pieces like white papers, sometimes blog posts for own channels.

I have strategised and written hundreds of pieces for around 150 such clients, published in major media. Over the last couple of years, I have taken the rough edges and inconsistencies off this by identifying and imposing a standardised process. It's a series of steps that involves my colleagues, my client contacts and myself, running from the start to the output. And it is also a workflow I have represented in software (no code), both to manage individual pieces, to note the status of multiple ongoing pieces and to record all historical pieces. It's almost like an in-house service, and I think the process around it is strong.

If I ever did my own thing, productising the above would be a big consideration. Though I recently started keeping a structured list of several other ideas that I have also been having.

Productising appeals for a few reasons:

Although the core of my work is creativity, originality and high-value content, I have become quite process-driven. Inefficiencies are a scourge, and I have seen first-hand, especially in agencies, how lack of process or divergence from it can lead to inefficiencies. I'm on board.

In time, it would be interesting to get to the point where, assuming a solid enough process that can be followed, I could enlist other people to do the creative work. Indeed, my current pipeline of various work is pretty full, to be honest.

Hey Robin, huge fan of your articles I am constantly trying to apply your insights and advice, thanks for sharing!

I am currently building (http://www.cortes.design) and trying to make it the high end take on productize consulting. My skill is designing websites for high touch SaaS in order to increase their conversion (and revenue as a result)

Just spent the entire weekend redesigning the website and writing a new email course to get more leads (http:/www.cortes.design/email-course), I am now focusing on high touch SaaS, here's why:

• They have a pretty high customer LTV and get a great ROI even with prices much higher than mine as they can get their money back by converting as low as 10-20 customers from the thousands of visitors they get.

• Their products tend to be harder to explain and therefore the conversion rates suffer so they really need my help.

• Because they usually require CTA with higher commitments and overall more objections they tend to have pretty bad conversion rates and might be looking for help (already confirmed this through my previous email course).

Something I think you can benefit from:

• Like you mentioned in this post you also want to use this as a way to learn what could work from seeing it first hand with other people's businesses. Wouldn't seeing a high-end version be useful to you?

More about me:

I'm a self-taught 19 year old designer and been learning for the past 3 years, I really want to focus on the impact of Design in business and to be honest I'm more passionate about business than Design even though I love both haha ;)

Happy to answer any questions, and take on the challenge ;)

Cheers!

Do w still have space bro @Vinrob as I just launched a productized service contentiskey.co which enables businesses and startups to hire a dedicated writer for $250/mo . Will highly appreciate you mentor me too

Hi Robin,

I'm Andre Dickson and I want to start a naming service. I've been toying with the idea of offering this service to a larger audience for a few months but I've never taken the leap. Reading your previous posts about productized services has really inspired me to try giving it a shot. I've had experience not just naming businesses and products for my own purposes but with naming for a few clients as well. I've read deeply on startups, branding and positioning so I know what good names look like. I want to do this service because I really enjoy naming things and I would love to help people get high quality names for their important projects and businesses.

I have already started thinking through what I want to do, here's what I have so far:

1. Standardization. I have designed a self-administered worksheet that lets clients clearly articulate all the important information I need to give them a unique and professional name that will match their business and positioning. As you know branding and design services can be high touch, but this method allows me to keep costs down by allowing clients to provide very detailed inputs that ensure that there will be very little back and forth between me and the client on what a good name looks like.

2. Credibility. I have developed a name and brand for the service that communicates this differentiation so I can put myself forward as a credible voice. I plan on also writing up some of my past naming initiatives to show clients my process and my results.

3. Cost structure. I wanted to work on automating certain elements of the naming process to make generating name ideas even faster. I have programming experience so I can do this myself.

4. Price flexibility. I don't want to offer a commodity service but one advantage I have is that I'm located in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) which has a lower standard of living than the clients I would be targeting. So I can afford to sacrifice on margins while I work on shortening the time between getting a request to providing a set of names to the client.

5. Scaling.This also helps in scaling up, T&T is a Caribbean island so it's in the same timezones with the US and has a highly educated English speaking population. If the service does well it's my plan to hire and train people to do naming using the process and tools that I would have developed.

Some of the things I haven't worked out yet:

1. Distribution. I've only done naming for people I know so I don't really know what the customer base is like. I would like to serve a niche that needs naming services but can't afford to use an agency.

2. Customers. I suspect that if I try to go over such a niche that I may run into customers who don't self-identify as needing naming and would rather do it themselves. I would love to hear what other IndieHackers have to say about that.

Would appreciate any help you can give.

Hi Robin! :)

This sounds pretty awesome. Me and my wife have been running a Productized Service for 5 years – An online summer reading campaign for libraries in Norway. It's launching it's 5th season on 1 june!

When this launches now, for the next few months we are looking to start a new Productized Service (or SaaS). We are evaluating our different markets, service ideas and making sure we have a sound plan moving into a new direction. I think mentorship could help us in this prosess and ensure we don't walk into this blindfolded.

I think we can leverage quite a lot from the markets and customers we are familiar with. We have lots of ideas, but know that the right approach and execution is key.

Let us know if you think we're a good fit, or let me know if you have any questions. 👍

@Vinrob, you've got me hook line and sinker!

Much like a lot of people here on IH, I've been on a quest to earn my location and financial freedom. It's been a pretty tough ride.

I've tried 2 startups, 1 cards against humanity replica game for South Africa, 2 apps, a podcast and recently tried consulting too.

As you can see, I'm not such a great maker but I'm a pretty badass Growth Marketer and so that's what I consulted on - both for a local company here in South Africa, one in USA and one in Israel.

They all went well but I found selling my time unrewarding, inefficient and unscalable.

Plus, the last contract ended today. Literally hours before I saw this post.

.

.

.

So, this opportunity has come at a perfect time!

Your Facebook group and personal success have been inspiring my thinking of late. It's provided me with a new, realistic framework to adopt and I think actually think I could make it work.

I've been thrashing an idea of Linkedin Automation as a Service.

I refined the process and got the art down to a tee with my clients and my personal Linkedin - actually growing mine by 1200 connections in 1.5 months and getting 190+ endorsements among other noticeable metrics. Most importantly, I picked up 2 of my consulting clients through Linkedin automation and can do the same for anyone.

Linkedin Automation as a Services > Growth Marketing consulting because

One scalable, outsourceable + semi-automated service to multiple people > bespoke consulting services to multiple people.

The promise of scalable location independent income lights me on fire and I will be pursuing this regardless if I am picked or not. Your help would be all the more valuable and might be what stops this endeavour from ending unsuccessfully like the others.

(I agree to be transparent + starting on June 1st and try hit $1000 in monthly revenue by end of June as my goal. I have already lined up 2 potential clients for my Linkedin Automation as a Services... both of whom I generated through my Linkedin Automation process.)

;)

Hey Robin,

You have helped me already with your suggestions in another IH thread and I don't know if I'd qualify for your very generous offer as I've already launched my productized service - TripEdge - unlimited travel content for a fixed monthly fee.

I've been involved in the online UK travel industry since 2000 and a maker since 2011 with TripEdge. I've started and pivoted many times since 2011 trying to find 'market fit' for my online travel industry experience and knowledge, see https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/tell-us-about-your-failed-products-7b2c700b39

I've been inspired by your stories on IH and I've decided to give TripEdge one last go as a 'productized' service, but like all the makers on here, your guidance would be invaluable.

Many thanks for your time.

A bit late for the game, but maybe not, @Vinrob. I'll try nonetheless :)

I'm a developer for more than 15 years now, struggling (like everyone certainly) to grow a business.

We had a nice success the last 3 years with my brother in law, when we built, grow and then sold VoilaNorbert.com. But since then, we are stagnating.

I recently launched PDFShift.io, a service to convert any HTML documents to PDF. I plan to work a lot on the marketing side in order to increase the brand recognition and hopefully convert users to paying customers.

The decision to build this tool was not from a lack of competitors, but from a lack of quality amongst the tools. My objectives here are to provide a great (and fast) service, and most importantly a great services users can rely on for their needs.

The reason for launching PDFshift was based on my original needs. I always generate the invoice for my customers in HTML, but would like to send it to the buyer by email. From there, you have two options: implement a local converter, or use an online service. That's where I want to be :)

Thank you for this offer Robin, it's nice and generous from you. Good luck reading all the posts, there is quite some work to do here ;) You hit the right community for that kind of offering :)

🤞

Hi Robin,

Thanks for helping us out! I'm a mobile developer with experience developing apps in native Android/iOS as well as React Native. I want to offer productized service related to creating kiosk (tablet) apps as I believe there is a lot of common functionality between these types of apps.

Thanks.

Hello Robin,

I am a web developer from France, with 6 years of experience. I had the opportunity to work with a great variety of companies / people. And I would like to create a passive income source.

I would love to have your help for that :)

I am not yet decided on the idea. But one can be to help non-tech people formalize their ideas and write technical / functional specifications.

It can help them have a better communication with tech people. And be more efficient in their projects.

My hard skills are the following :

• front-end programming

• basics about design / ux

• basics about backend programming

Hi,

I am interested for web development as a service especially for wordpress .. I like the model followed by wpcurve and wpbuffs .. I am working as a software engineer/technical lead since 8 years .. would like to start with your program .. please add me in this ..

Thanks

Hi @Vinrob! This is a great idea.

I'm currently working on a project that enables peer-groups for makers, It’s in it's starting stage and it’s called Linhub

These groups have great potential, since they promote accountability (like bossasaservice), support and experience exchange. You could consider it masterminds as a service.

My objective is not to monetize it as soon as possible, but to build something that is really useful. So I double the bet, and instead of looking to reach a $1.000 MRR, I would like to set another metric.

Of course, if we reach the second, we will reach easily the first. The thing about the $1.000 MRR is that we could “hack” it, and get to the number without really building something useful. And I don’t want to fall in that trap.

The other day I found this tweet from Mixpanel’s founder Suhail that represent a part of what I want to promote: "Power = responsibility. Being CEO will become lonely as you can't be as vulnerable & authentic as you'd like. Find other founders who will be real with you. Have dinners with them & share problems openly. I've been given hugs by them during tough times. It made the difference.” https://twitter.com/Suhail/status/998660831360397314

I think I could totally use your help in this journey. Hope this resonates with you.

Hi Robin my name is Álvaro Smith, I was reading your post and I have to say that I personally consider this is a great idea in order to boost the projects of the community in general.

I used to be a professor at the university, teaching is my passion, for that reason one day, I decided to create a website related with "Spanish Teaching online" I personally designed a pedagogical program to teach Spanish to the Anglo speakers, and you know what? It works, I´m really proud of this fact because I can help people from many countries from all over the world to learn this wonderful language.

My website is called www.spanishplusweb.com I currently have a group of Students from Canada, United States, New Zealand, Norway and even one student from Russia. I strongly believe that this project has too much potential for some reasons:

1 The program works.

2 We have the lowest price available.

3 Thousands of people wants to take Spanish lessons online in their own schedule because is comfortable and safe.

I'll be happy to work with you according to your vast experience, this project is super sustainable because we offer great and friendly services with affordable prices to the people from all over the world, my program is design to those people who only knows few Spanish words like "HOLA" to the conversational levels. Do you want to try? Just let me know and I´ll be there teaching you.

as I always say at the end of each class. “Muchas gracias por tu tiempo -- Thank you very much for your time”.

Álvaro Smith.

Hi there Robin.

Thank you for doing this.

Would love to be part of the group as action seems to accelerate when working with like-minded people.

I'd like to productize growth systems integration or marketing automation. This would include having user events tracked on website and SaaS product and have them funnel into user journeys based on those actions. It's the work I do already and have gotten the expertise on the workflow and implementation of it.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Hi Robin, very kind offer you are making. Not surprised to see so many people keen to work with you.

I am a former designer and developer, who had an unsuccessful run a time building a SaaS startup for the last couple of years. In the startup we raised finance, and gave it everything but came up short.

Since it ended in January I’ve started working for myself as a consultant on various projects. The one I’m seeing a most initial interest is consulting on business processes: helping businesses to collaborate more effectively using simple tools and processes.

Recently I’ve wanted to figure out the best way to productize this service. I’m not sure the best way to package it and would love your advice on this.

I have some other consulting services related to agile team training, remote team setup, and product roadmapping and strategy that I’m also keen to productize too.

I’d set myself the goal of getting 2k per month by August so your goal of 1k by end of June works for me!

Looking forward to hopefully working with you.

Daragh

Hi Rob,

I'm an experienced Dev Manager, CTO, and Product Manager. I've spent most of my career in the SaaS space. I would like to productize product/development management as a service.

Ash

Hey Robin, thanks for doing this!

Your idea to help would-be entrepreneurs like myself is really appreciated!

I'm a copywriter who's been writing since 2013. I specialize mainly in creating sales landing pages and content articles, but have also done just about all kinds of marketing-related writing.

Tech-wise, I'm definitely not a programmer but I've set up wordpress sites before.

My goal here is to set up a productized website for copywriting, with a main focus on sales. For most businesses, sales is usually the #1 priority, whether it's a new business or an established company. The website will also productize other types of copywriting such as content articles, eBook writing, and proofreading.

I'll be doing most of the writing at the start, but I'm also screening and qualifying some freelance writers to employ if my clients start piling up (hopefully)!

Future plans may include partnering with designers or even sites like yours (manypixels.co) if clients require design in their projects.

I intend to use mainly free marketing methods at the start before using paid ads. My time commitment is pretty much every waking minute until this business is profitable. I'm 10000% committed and highly motivated to making this happen with minimum investment and maximum effort.

My current challenges are pricing strategies, and whether I should create a website from scratch or purchase an eCommerce site to repurpose for this endeavor to cut short the time needed.

Hey Robin

Dave here, formerly from NinjaOutreach. We've actually exchanged a few FB messages, maybe you remember.

I'd like to run a service to help founders create and optimize their onboarding messaging. A lot of founders have their onboarding set up in tools like Intercom, Drift, etc, but they're not properly optimized (lacking clear copywriting, goals, targeting) and on an ongoing basis I think there could be a monthly service that involved creating new split tests, campaigns, etc.

Plus this opens up the world of UIUX where the sky is the limit. For example it could include reports from watching in-app user videos, testing for bugs, etc.

I've already worked with a few businesses regarding this, all of which have paid over $1k for the service, but now the question is about productizing it and scaling it i.e introducing it to more people. I believe it properly follows a process and therefore could be a good candidate for the PS model. Additionally, just about every application needs onboarding.

Curious to hear what you think!

Hey Robin!

This is awesome of you and I'm really excited to see what comes out of it from the 10 people you select.

Lately I have been thinking of what my next move could be. I've done countless of websites before, written a few first drafts of novels, have tried Podcasting, reviewing games, and many other things. Mostly with the goal to help users and provide them with amazing value.

However - I've constantly failed or missed my mark.

Part of it, I believe, is cause I haven't had the right guidance but also because I have many limiting beliefs.

I believe with someone like yourself to help me, I would be able to hit that mark finally and also pay it forward.

I'm currently a Product Manager, I have decent writing skills, and have a CS background (although I haven't coded in a long time).

I'm not totally sure what the project would be that I could offer, but I would really love and appreciate the opportunity. One thing is for sure: I would give it my all.

Thank you for reading,

Jose

Hi Robin,

I want to start off by saying your posts here have been insightful and inspirational. I’ve been following you for quite a while to soak up as much knowledge as possible (I’ve checked out your Maastricht letting site & viaflats, and all of your blog updates with Milaa and Sendy)!

[My Idea:]

I recently purchased the domain Afterword.io (not setup yet). The original idea behind Afterword was to be an interview publication that shares the backstories behind written works (novels, scripts, autobiographies, etc.). Since following you and breaking down your “10 examples of productized services” post, I’ve been thinking about a “Publishing as a Service” business, though if you felt it is not a good fit for productized service, I would be open to discussing your thoughts about "Ghostwriting as a Service" or "Editing as a Service". Here’s my breakdown:

• [Pro] My business could serve as a publishing house and publish written works on behalf of writers, with a revenue-sharing/royalty model (needs to be refined).

• [Pro] For writers who are creating a serial (releasing written work in smaller installments), the site could be an outlet to share each installment.

• [Pro] Initial idea of backstories behind written works can slot in perfectly as regular content to bring in natural traffic, like the guides mentioned above. Down the line, other written guides/free resources could be used to bring traffic.

• [Con] Not sure how publishing will work in the productized service model, considering writing takes a long time and isn’t something that is “ready to go” multiple times per month.

[How I Can Succeed Under Your Mentorship:]

I’ve been following Indie Hackers, Hacker News, and other Entrepreneurial forums for quite some time. In that time, I’ve learned programming basics, have messed around with Wordpress & Ghost blog platforms, and have experimental accounts with Zapier for automation (love a good MVP, no code solution where appropriate). I’m a driven, well rounded individual who’s ready to take the plunge into this serious project.

If you have an interest in this or have a suggestion that you think could turn this into a good fit for productized service, I hope I am one of the 10 selected and we can work together!

Hi Robin,

I'm a French data scientist based in south east of Asia. I want to start a productized service for researchers where I do data manipulation/analysis/statistics.

I think there is a big demand for that, as statistics are used everywhere in research but most of the time researchers do not have the skills or the interest to do it themselves.

I still have many doubts on how to do it, my main questions are about which language to focus on (French for the niche or English for the reach) and also I'm not sure if I should go for subscription based model like you do at ManyPixels or just project based pricing.

Anyway I hope to get on the first batch, cheers !

Wow, that's mighty generous Robin!

Although there's already a ton of people pitching in here, I'll just chime in and make you read yet another one 😅

I'm currently interested in building a job board for makers where they can find contract work. The other side of that are small businesses, hobbyists and perhaps entrepreneurs who all need physical prototypes or small production runs and don't know ow how to make those.

As we all know, getting marketplaces off the ground is difficult. That's why I'd like to jump-start it somehow. Maybe with a productized service like cnc-machining-aas, laser-cutting-aas with a low barrier to submitting the design files and a low-touch process overall. I'd love to hear your perspective on this 🙏

Anyways, that's one more concrete example, but it doesn't have to be exactly that. I see myself as more of a generalist and would love to hear what your assessment of my skills and situation brings up. Maybe there's a good angle I didn't think of yet.

Here's a bit more about me: https://lowestdefinition.com

Thanks a bunch for reading.

Cheers,

Philipp

Hi Robin,

I am kind of new to entrepreneurship. I started a little ecommerce side gig on Amazon a few months ago. Before that I was working in Finance at PwC and in Business Intelligence at Lazada/Alibaba.

I am now looking to start a new full-time project and I am very interested by the idea of productized services.

I know I want to build a scalable product around data and business intelligence, possibly offering live dashboards with finance and operations KPI to small startups so they can have an aggregate and accurate view of what's going on in their businesses at all times. However, I am still struggling with the offering and I would love to receive your help/participate in your experiment.

BI is still a relatively new field and I am sure there are plenty of opportunities ahead!

Let me know what you think! I am very excited about this community!

Quentin

(Would have responded earlier, but was busy trying to hack together my site; which for whatever reason Jekyll refused to work right with, ha.)

Hiya!

I'm a writer; and am planning on launching a productized service around exactly that - writing. Copywriting, in particular. Startup communities - bootstrapping ones, in particular - tend to have a lot of ESL members, and it's fairly easy to see how well they in particular'd benefit from a service like it.

Similarly, I think there's a tonne of room amongst founders who aren't necessarily confident in their writing abilities in general, or just dislike anything that even vaguely seems like promotional material.

Time isn't really an issue for me, as I'm available almost 23/7.

Would absolutely love to learn from your experience. Cheers.

I'll lead your product's development so you don't get screwed by developers.

Yes, I'll be your Product-Manager-as-a-Service.

Leading your cross-functional team (freelancers, coders, designers, etc) from a product's conception (writing MVP requirements) all the way through to its launch (comparing deliverables against what have been agreed)...

Not everybody has the patience, technical or managerial skills to deal with that.

Just sent you more details to your mailbox @RobinVander

Robin,

I am currently a software engineer working at a popular HR platform. I've worked on Wall Street and have made a transition from Finance(trading) to Technology(engineering) and I'd like to offer a service to help review/edit resumes for prospective students looking to break into these industries. Since I've been in both industries, I have an idea of what recruiters are generally looking for. I'd like to launch this service because I haven't seen any products are affordable to the average college student.

I'd like some help identifying different avenues of advertising and ways to measure the success of this service. I would be the one building/reviewing resumes at first. Thanks for your time!

Here is my landing page. www.resumegroom.com

Hey it's a bit late but if there are any slots free, i would like to be Part of this as well. i spent the last 4 years coding different things ranging from C++ for work, to game development with unity and C#, JS etc, doing all sorts of paid and unpaid side work for friends/clients etc.

i live in a very quiet part of germany, we have lots of woods and nature and rivers and thus im a developer who loves to code outdoors and if i don't code i play: climbing, mountainbiking, etc.

I basically feel like a zen monk programmer on my laptop,

happy with a little screen and a full battery.

I actually think productivity comes with mindset.

anyway, don't want to get tooo "woowoo" here.

I have a little idea for a productized service already, actually it might benefit from your companies service as well. would love to hear from you :))

Hi Robin,

I am an entrepreneur and lawyer from Australia. I founded an employment law firm and have built up my team to 11 people. I have been running the law firm for 5 years but I've doubled the business in the last 12 months.

My aim is to get into legal technology and  I'm in the process of setting up a startup on the side which is a productized service. My friend referred me to your page and community.

The working-name of the startup is "Cover Your Ass". It's a product which helps businesses hire and fire their employees.  The product will contain: 1. a chatbot to guide the business owner on legal issues and direct the business owner which documents they need.  2. It will also contain a custom document creation tool to build the relevant documents to hire and fire employees legally. 3. It will also offer businesses a selected amount of time for a discussion with a legal advisor. It will be a subscription model.

The product will target all businesses in Australia initially,  but the plan is to expand to the rest of the world!  I will also develop this product into helping businesses cover themselves in other areas besides employment law issues.

My business website is here: http://www.perthemploymentlawyers.com.au/

Cheers,

Nicholas

Hi Robin,

I'm following you for a while because I really like your transparency and the way you share what you have learned.

I'm a WordPress developer for already about 5 years. My primary income are premium WordPress themes on platforms like Creative Market and Template Monster. I do sometimes freelancing job.

I would like to start a service like ManyPixels but for WordPress related tasks like Installation, SSL, Hosting, Hacked website, etc...

I really hope to work with you

Cheers

Pasquale (PanKogut)

This sounds awesome @Vinrob

I am an old follower of indiehackers fro a long time and I hve been very much motivated to build my own productized service too.

.

I would like to have a productized service in the field of pets. The normal MVP would be as the pet lovers say dog lovers would come on to site sign up for few bucks and provide their friend's phone number or any relative and the dog facts would be sent to their phone annonymosly as a prank/surprise.

Ther's been already a website serving this as a productized one. check this: https://sendcatfacts.com/

So I would like to have my productized service just similar to this but I would like to target for other pets which I have reserached a lot.

The main pets I AM GOING to target are:

dogs

guinea pigs

ducks

as ahrefs.com has shown a huge volume of search about them with little competition.

.

But still I dont know how to proceed and therefore wold love to get you in my journey as a teacher.

:)

Wow this is a great idea!

My name is Ben Widdop I am a student from London who is looking to learn anything new and face new experiences. Im fairly new to Indie Hacker and i have already seen the amazing community. Im not really specialised in many things but I am learning app development with a few ideas in mind. As I am young I think that I know of some younger target audiences and as I am studying media at college have learnt what other target audiences would like. I am completely open to new ideas me and my friends come up with some everyday just wishing we had the skills to develop them into products.

I am also a complete beginner and would take on the experience of others. I also would love to be able to run a business that I can decide the hours i work and not be in a 9-5 job but I would be fully committed to making it work even if it takes me a long time!

Thanks Ben!

Hi Robin, what an offer! I'll try. I'm a web designer and collaborate with a dev buddy on various web projects. I've made a fair amount of websites for individuals (consultants, coaches, .etc) and decided I want to just offer them a flat-rate web design package + hosting + full-time support (monthly subscription) Normally with such clients, once budget talks went above 1500k, the process became stalled or the client was scared to invest or just not a good use of my time. And so I just put together a package https://webodew.com/busy-entrepreneur/ I've offered a website for free and then they must pay $50/month for the continued support. But now I have the base templates I want to use. Obstacles I face is living in foreign country. I'm from States but living in Paris and don't know people here. And my language is good enough to make a few jokes or understand someone, but feel intimidated to cold call. I don't have a marketing budget yet, but would like to work out this project where I put resources toward marketing and having someone put the website together.

Hey @Vinrob,

I've been a software developer for the past 4 years and have, for awhile now, have a bug to build something on my own. I have struggled with settling on an idea, but I was very intrigued when you said you can help narrow something down. It is very overwhelming to know where to start, so this would be a ton of help for me to get started on this journey I've been dreaming about.

I have a passion for great customer service, creating a great user experience, and knowing that this product is actually solving a problem for others. I would love to create a tool for artists or creating something in the 'artists' market as I'm an artist and would like to use my software skills to solve pain points. There is also an opportunity to create a CMS for car salesman that integrates with the inventory at any dealership.

I have 20-30 hrs I could give to this project a week and would work my ass of to do what I need to do.

I appreciate your offer and would love to be considered a beginner for this opportunity!

Thanks

Hi Robin ,

I can't code but I do have skills in relationship marketing, and sales. I own a large forum online (100k+ users) which is in the (make money niche) and feel whatever we put together could be offered to them right off the bat.

I love the whole productize concept. My thoughts would be something related to simplifying: virtual assistants, SEO, software management, site themes, saving time/money

I'd love to connect with you! :)

Thanks

Lee

New here recently location to SF. Background in Corporate Strategy and Business Intelligence.

Hi Robin, thank you for offering this to the community!

I would love to be one of the 10 members. Here's why I think I'd be a great choice:

1 - I've been an entrepreneur since 2011, and I have experience building ecommerce, software and service-based side-hustles.

2 - I am going to commit full-time (~60 hours a week) to building this business. I'm glad to be in a position where I can focus on it 100%.

3 - I've already been developing the MVP of my business, so we could jump right into validating the market fit, pricing, customer profile, etc.

4 - Without being super specific, my company will be a content creation resource for startups, big businesses and personal brands. It's a way to have customized content that fits perfectly for your brand, created for you on a monthly basis, completely hands-off.

The idea to build this came to mind when I was searching for a company that could do this type of service for me in my last startup. I know how to design and write good content, so one of the planned key differentiators will be very high-quality content.

5 - I'm very resourceful, and I've already figured out how to streamline operations and content creation while maintaining a high-quality end product.

6 - This would be a great way to show you my skill-set and experience as an entrepreneur, and open the discussion of partnering down the road or bringing you on as an advisor.

I really hope to hear from you Robin. Either way, I'll be building this business and crushing it this year, but I would love your guidance (and the potential to work with you in the future).

Thank you,

Tyrel

Hi, I have a proposal:

Currently i have 3 products created:

• Production company management software, warehouse management, ordering system and metrics

• Auto shop management software for small and medium shops

• AI and ML as a service API for embedding into applications (services include: image recognition, classification, NLP, face ID) made with custom and public models

I'm currently having trouble monetizing all of these products. We're building them for 3 years now.

Hi Robin, this is great idea.

I'm a Full Stack Developer, I help clients fix website issues and bugs. I've a small clientele that I work with and I'm looking to expand my customer base. So the idea is an on-demand bug fixing service for which I recently launched https://bugcrew.net (my site design is heavily inspired by your manypixels design). The website and landing page are still work in progress. I suck big time at marketing hence execution has been a struggle. So basically finding out a niche to serve and making website and myself business ready are two things I'd like to exercise with your help.

Excited about working with you and reaching out new customers to achieve $1k MRR goal.

Hey Robin. I was just about to reach you via the fb forum about this before seeing this thread.

So here goes my idea. I’m a coder and been doing PSD to HTML work for 8+ years as a freelancer. Basically what I do is convert PSD designs to HTML5, Wordpress and email templates.

I wanted to get clients of my own, so a couple of months ago I launched www.webslicers.com. The idea is to offer a very reduced set of services (the 3 mentioned above), same business model as psd2html.com. There are already a ton of companies offering this services.

The ideal customer is a web agency that needs recurrent jobs like this, mostly email templates for their clients.

Since launching I’ve been struggling to get clients, just a few for Wordpress. I’m not that good at marketing and honestly I’m a pro procrastinator in this field.

So the idea would be to productive this. Maybe just one of the 3 options, since each one of them may target a different type of client. As I said, there are lots of conpanies targeting the psd to html field, but haven’t found one that does this as a productized service, at least yet.

I know from first hand that email templates are a need for digital agencies, and usually they come with a landing page, but I’m not sure if they would like this since they prefer a closer contact due the back and forth that usually each project hast.

Anyway, I’m open to try one of these approach or the 3 of them, so maybe with your expertise you can figure out how to find and reach the ideal client.

Will speak/practice english as a service work? Sounds funny but i think there's a market

Sounds great @Vinrob!

I've been thinking about starting a productized service since I saw ManyPixels,

I've quit my job in April to bootstrap my own business full-time, since then I'm launching, failing fast and launching again.

I've launched wordhunt.xyz, proxybin.co and getquoter.app since I've quit my job.

Since I've been coding for 4 years now, I've sit crazy amounts on a laptop and been doing a lot of movements the wrong way due to the excessive sitting and sedentary life style,

That caused me to have a couple of postural problems and muscular ones, I've researched my own problems, and learnt so much about physical therapy and postural exercises.

I've seen many employees trying to find a comfortable position to sit at, moving and tiltig left and right, and not getting focus because of pain.

I want to start a productized service where I provide physical therapists for companies, so they have healthier employees, which means happier employees, to get more productivity and company happiness overall.

Hey Robin, count me in!

1. I worked as a support engineer for a hosting company and picked up many skills related to WordPress: Server configuration for speed optimization, plugin configuration and development, WordPress debugging and installs, etc.

I'm also interested in the fitness space and currently am trying to make a productized service with fitness coaching at http://fitterme.co/ but I found that the offer is quite general and not tailored to a specific niche so I'm working on improving it or iterate.

Your offer sounds awesome to learn more about the process and build something! The reason I want to launch a productized service is that it would help to have a streamlined process to have recurring revenue by focusing on a small set of offers that I really know how to do and automate everything else.

Hey, Robin!

Here's my idea: a productized content marketing service. Revolutionary, right?!

I know, I know - content agencies are a dime a dozen. But as a freelancer, I realized customers all over the world are on the lookout for someone who can dependably deliver quality writing. I have an academic background in CS engineering, so I was able to bring technical know-how to content for ICOs, product launches, and so on. I think a content agency aimed at tech companies would be an interesting proposition.

I want to go the productized service route because it will be fun applying what I've learned from freelancing to a more scalable offering. As much as I enjoy creating good content, the skill I value most is being empathetic to clients' requirements and over-delivering thereafter.

I look forward to kicking ass with the nine other founders in this cohort. This is the closest I'm going to get to feeling like I'm part of the Avengers.

@Vinrob what a great idea. Thanks for doing this! I'd like to be considered for this social experiment :D

• Currently working as Head of Growth for a contemporary art marketplace, but always working on side projects. In the past I've built a language learning startup in the Valley using voice recognition (http://talking.ninja). One of my side projects right now is a goal-setting and tracking app Tony's Calendar (https://tonyscalendar.carrd.co). And of course tons of projects that got 0 love from the market.

• Marketable skills: startup growth, implementing and tracking analytics, social media growth, riding motorcycles across weird countries? :D

• I mainly want to do this in order to learn the skills necessary to launch a productized service. I also want to spend more time with like-minded people who like to create businesses and provide value. This opportunity seems like the perfect mastermind group.

I'm not applying because I don't run a productized service, but always happy to see great stuff from you @Vinrob 👍 The winners are sure to get great insights and value from this.

A good initiative Robin!

First of all thanks!

.

(1) I am from India.

(2) I am trying to launch my first ever productized service in the field of Education and Online homework help niche. So Online Education would be my market.

Why do you want to launch a productized service?

(3) I want to provide a proper value to my customers which will be high school students and college students perhaps and I think that it would be easier to do this via productized service.

As in the past I have worked myself as a freelancer on various online education platforms in answering and providing the solutions to high school and college students.

I have some Facebook followers too in this niche which i gained from past which validated too that there is a market for this.

With this I have experienced some loop holes in the online tutoring and online homework help and therefore I am trying to add and modify it and test it the value in terms of a productized service.

.

I have gained very much inspiration from yours side-gig manypixels.co and also I am following yours facebook group and I read all posts and ask qstns and learn from them.

And all of this motivated me to launch my side-gig too and have created an simple MVP for now.

Here is the MVP for now: http://indiestudies.com/

In doing so I am facing obstacles too which I am looking after and would love to get you as a mentor and a guidance who can help me to move forward and succeed.

Thankyou!

Noble cause @vinro. I hope other leaders also come out like you and all IH users get what they are looking for.

About Myself:

I am a full stack web developer who loves to work on ideas but right now working on client projects to help them from idea to product so I can pay my bills.

My Idea:

An app that motivates users on daily basis to track: Life Goal progress, Positive thoughts over negative ones, Progress on life goals, One lesson learned, Kindness in one single screen.

Hey Robin. This is a really nice idea. Although I wont be applying I would like to read posts from you about your experiences with this process :) So excited :)

Robin, you are amazing!

I always read your articles about the services generated and also joined your FB group about 1 month ago.

When I read ManyPixel's story on IH, it inspired me to make the same service for other functions. I think I should do something as soon as possible, and this opportunity is perfect for me.

Skill I want to productized is social media content.

I am a new graduate in marketing. I am interested in social media content. I have joined local NGOs to produce some of their social media content. I've also run a local business where I do all the social media marketing tasks. Maybe this is not an awesome experience but I learned a lot and became aware that I liked all about social media content. Moreover, I like design, writing and marketing.

Market I particularly know: I have connections to brand and business owners (especially sustainable brands, subscription box businesses, SAAS). I have joined the community.

I want to launch a productized service because: firstly, I live in Indonesia, many local talents in the field of social media content here are good quality and also cheap but can not sell their ability to the outside market. Secondly, I need a commodity that I can sell to do good. I always dreamed of having a social business with concepts like TOMS Shoes that is buy one get one, a business that will give something to those who need it for every successful product sold.

If I am not selected allow me to keep learning with you. thank you very much and success is always for us.

Robin, this is very kind of you.

So here goes my pitch… I've been failing to build a profitable side project for the past 4 years, and this year the coin finally flipped. My scrappiest project made $1. Now, I'm killing it because I'm ready to build my first profitable and sustainable online business (read more https://www.indiehackers.com/@pkrupar/5-things-ive-learned-from-my-first-profitable-side-project-f6e7789397).

My idea is this 👉 sidemail.io. The most effortless emailing solution designed specifically for makers the world has ever seen. One month to build something like that is a hell of a challenge. I'm down. 🤟

Yesterday, I grieved that I always try to push others, but never had someone to push me. If this isn't a sign, then what is!

EDIT: Auch... just re-read the rules and realized my idea doesn't fit the productized service criteria. Best of luck, guys!

This is so awesome! I'm currently reading your 15k/mo article while trying to think of an idea to apply with!

Hi Robin,Thanks for such a great initiative

Debasis here,I have 4+ years of experience in helping other startups in SMM and Google ad words.The reason I want to launch a productized service is because it offers better option to market the service through packaged instead of sending proposal every time.I have launched few productized service in the past( B2B lead generation and SMM) but never able to grow beyond India.And need some guidance on that.