Up-and-Coming Micro-Product Ecosystems
I'm just starting out on a journey of entrepreneurship and am being guided by The Stair Step Approach.
I'm researching existing platforms where I might release a single sale product – WordPress, Shopify etc – and finding them pretty saturated. For example, the first step to submitting a theme on Shopify is to submit a 5-page product brief. I was also looking into building a pricing optimisation tool on there – 20 existing apps already doing it.
I'm willing to invest in learning a platform, but less so when the barriers to entry feel so high.
Does anybody have a sense of any ecosystems which feel like they're coming up now? Like Shopify 5 years ago. Alternatively, I'm very open to thinking about and approaching this problem in a different way if you have a suggestion.
i asked the same question a while ago.
The best platforms are the new ones with high potential. Identifying them might be tricky though.
My approach was to build a standalone product, but with the possibility to easily sell it on different platforms with minimal work if I can't get traction without the help of the other platforms.
This way I won't be totally dependent on the platform and won't care too much if there's competition since the product is already built.
In my cases, it's working good as stand-alone product and there's no need to create a add-on/plugin/app for other platforms at this time, but will do in the future for sure.
Sounds like an interesting approach. Is it a dev tool?
Are you open to share your list of up and coming marketplaces ecosystems? Might be valuable for others on IH who are starting out too...
I think even a categorized list of current marketplaces might be interesting to start digging.
Looking forward to chatting with you about this.
The Heroku add-on ecosystem might be interesting, I imagine most Heroku customers are relatively price insensitive. Here's an interview with a guy who has a profitable Heroku add-on based on open source software: https://startingandsustaining.com/episodes/pat-allan/
Hey @danni – you might be interested in this related project I've just launched with @patrics .
https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/show-ih-which-marketplace-discover-new-project-opportunities-in-50-software-marketplaces-fb475940ec
Awesome, thanks for the tip. Will look into it!
I have the feeling the G Suite marketplace is coming up. The whole G Suite ecosystem is heavily pushed by Google (and as such growing) and not as mature and saturated as other app marketplaces, e.g. the Apple App Store.
There is also an interview on indiehackers about building a Google Sheets Addon: https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses/yet-another-mail-merge
I also had some ideas in that direction. Let me know, if you want to discuss!:)
Hey @mmw! We used your idea about G Suite in this recent project – check it out—
https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/show-ih-which-marketplace-discover-new-project-opportunities-in-50-software-marketplaces-fb475940ec
Awesome, thanks for the tip. Hadn't thought of G Suite!
I'm very open to discussing your G Sheets ideas, too. Drop me a line on j.kou.bowles@gmail.com!
The barrier of entry on a popular platform might also be a good thing for a developer. It means that more people are going to be set back from actually pushing anything out to the ecosystem, giving you more space if you do.
Anyway, I think you're onto something while searching for upcoming platforms to build apps/themes/whatever on. I have a friend who made some simple silly games on Facebook right after FB opened the platform for developers. He's been making money with it to date, and at its peak it was generating income well worth the development hours put in.
Hey @Vertti! Thought you might be interested to see this project which came out of this thread—
https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/show-ih-which-marketplace-discover-new-project-opportunities-in-50-software-marketplaces-fb475940ec
Yes, you're right! Maybe I wouldn't find the competition too strong if I pushed an app out there. 🤔