Building Intelens: Stop losing money on forgotten subscriptions đź’¸
Hey Indie Hackers! đź‘‹
I'm excited to finally share what I've been working on: Intelens.
Like many of us, I realized I was bleeding money every month on subscriptions I either forgot about, rarely used, or didn't even know were still active. Between SaaS tools, hosting, streaming services, and memberships, they all add up incredibly fast. It’s a common problem, but keeping track of everything in a spreadsheet is tedious and a hassle to maintain.
That's why I built Intelens. It's a smart expense tracking and budget management tool specifically designed to tackle the "subscription creep" problem head-on.
Here is what it does:
🕵️‍♂️ Detects recurring payments: Automatically identifies your active subscriptions so you don't have to input them manually.
đź”® Visualizes future cash flow: Projects your upcoming recurring expenses so you get a crystal-clear view of your future bank balance before those charges hit.
🛑 Stops the money leaks: Helps you easily spot those forgotten subscriptions so you can cancel them and take control of your spending.
I've been spending the last few weeks heads-down perfecting the automated tracking and transaction projections (squashing lots of fun bugs along the way!), and the core engine is now working beautifully.
I’d love to connect with other founders here. How do you all currently keep track of your recurring subscriptions and business expenses? Any feedback or thoughts would be highly appreciated!
Cheers!
Subscription creep is real and genuinely painful. The interesting design challenge is that the people who need this most are also the least likely to actively manage it. If they were the type to track spending carefully they probably would not have the problem in the first place. Curious how you are thinking about making the product work for people who are not naturally organised with money.
You’re spot on — that’s exactly the challenge.
I’m building it assuming users won’t change their habits. So instead of asking them to track things, it auto-detects subscriptions and nudges them at the right moment (like before a charge hits).
Less “dashboard,” more “hey, you’re about to waste money — fix this now.
Nice work shipping this! Subscription creep is one of those problems that's deceptively expensive — most founders I know are surprised when they actually tally up what they're paying across all their tools.
Couple thoughts/questions:
On the product itself — the recurring payment detection is the real unlock here. Spreadsheets fail because nobody maintains them. How are you handling the bank/payment connection? Plaid integration, or are you parsing email receipts, or something else? That'll probably be the biggest trust barrier for early users so worth leading with how you handle data security in your messaging.
On distribution — have you thought about positioning this specifically for indie hackers/solopreneurs as the wedge? Enterprise has Ramp, Brex, etc. but solo founders running 15-30 micro-SaaS subscriptions across personal and business cards is a genuinely underserved niche. You could partner with communities like this one or build a "SaaS stack audit" lead magnet that feeds into the product.
On the business model — curious if you're thinking freemium, flat subscription, or percentage-of-savings? The irony of paying a subscription to manage subscriptions isn't lost on anyone, so the value prop needs to clearly outweigh the cost.
For what it's worth, I'm building something in adjacent territory — Shortlist (AI-powered SDR/BDR recruiting tool). Totally different problem but similar GTM challenge of reaching founders who are drowning in operational overhead. Happy to swap notes on distribution strategies if you're interested.
Good luck with the launch!
Appreciate this — you basically called out the 3 hardest parts of this space.
On detection:
We’re starting with a hybrid approach — initial version leans on transaction pattern detection (recurring charges, merchant fingerprinting), not email parsing.
Bank integrations (like Plaid) are on the roadmap, but I’m being careful here — trust > features early on. I’d rather get accuracy + clarity right before asking users to connect accounts.
On trust:
You’re 100% right — this is the biggest barrier.
So the messaging is shifting from “track everything” → “see exactly what’s about to hit your account before it does” (forward-looking cash flow).
Also being explicit about data handling — minimal storage, no selling data, and eventually read-only integrations only.
On positioning:
This is a great call.
Right now the strongest signal is actually coming from indie hackers / small builders juggling 10–20 tools across personal + business cards.
The “SaaS stack audit” idea is 🔥 — that’s probably a better top-of-funnel than generic subscription tracking.
On pricing:
Yeah — paying for a subscription tool is ironic unless the ROI is obvious.
So the thinking is: free tier for visibility → paid for automation + forecasting.
Still validating whether “saved money” framing or “clarity/control” resonates more.
Also your Shortlist product sounds interesting — different space but same GTM pain.
Would definitely be down to compare notes on what’s working (and what’s not).
Nice idea — budgeting tools can be tricky to differentiate. Are you focusing on a specific audience segment to start with, or keeping it broad initially?
Great question — and honestly, going broad early is a trap for products like this.
Right now, the focus is on people who are most exposed to “subscription creep” — indie hackers, SaaS builders, and digital professionals who stack multiple tools during build phases and forget about them later.
They have three characteristics:
High number of recurring subscriptions
Irregular cash flow (not just fixed salaries)
Real pain when expenses go unnoticed
That makes Intelens immediately valuable without needing heavy education.
Long term, it can expand to general consumers, but starting narrow ensures the product solves a sharp, high-frequency problem first — instead of becoming another generic budgeting app.
Curious — from your perspective, which segment do you think feels this pain the most?
That makes sense — starting narrow is probably the only way to differentiate in a crowded space like budgeting tools.
My first thought is freelancers and small agency owners might feel this pain quite a lot too, especially when they use many SaaS tools for clients and internal work and expenses get spread across different cards and accounts.
I’ve noticed a lot of people don’t realise how much they’re spending on subscriptions until they actually list everything in one place.
That’s a sharp angle — and honestly a better wedge than “everyone with subscriptions.”
Freelancers/agency owners have:
higher subscription density
real financial impact (not just $10–$20 leaks)
messy multi-account setups
Which makes the pain both visible and urgent.
That’s a strong way to frame it — especially the difference between “noticeable leak” and “urgent financial pain.”
I think that’s probably the key: if the pain is both high-frequency and financially visible, the product becomes much easier to position and sell.
The messy multi-account setup makes it even better because then it’s not just a budgeting issue, it becomes a visibility and control problem too.
You’ve nailed the real leverage point — it stops being “expense tracking” and becomes control over financial chaos.
That shift matters because:
budgeting = nice-to-have
control/visibility = operational necessity
The opportunity I’d push further: don’t just show the mess — quantify the cost of that mess.
Like:
“You’re overspending $X/month due to scattered tools”
“These 3 subscriptions are duplicated across accounts”
“Your real SaaS cost is 2x what you think”
When the chaos gets translated into a clear financial hit, it stops being optional and becomes something they have to fix.
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That’s the real game — not features, trust.
I’m focusing on making the product feel transparent and non-sketchy from day one:
Clear “what we access vs what we don’t” (no vague data claims)
No aggressive upsells or dark patterns
Simple, honest messaging — not “AI magic”
And then proving value fast — if users save money in the first few days, trust builds itself.
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Exactly — “trust = friction removed” is the right frame.
If a user has to guess what’s happening, we’ve already lost. So the focus is making every output explainable — why something was flagged, where the data came from, and what action to take next.
Clarity isn’t just positioning, it’s the product itself.
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Appreciate that — but I’m also treating it as a constraint, not just a philosophy.