Least Crowded Market
Greetings IH,
What do you think is the least crowded SaaS market? We all know marketing has the most crowded SaaS products. Knowing where there is less competition will help many indie founders get traction with their products. Is the more niche you go better for competition?
Usually lesser crowded markets that you'd still want to pursue (as in they're not uncrowded because there's no money in it) are ones that are a) in an industry that's boring b) in an industry that's maybe doesn't have the greatest perception/reputation c) in an industry that's still new and growing and maybe has a lot of skeptics.
@yaroslawbagriy You bring up an interesting point. The least crowded market is the market that doesn't exist. Less competition isn't necessarily a good thing...you have to ask yourself, "Why is no one monetizing in this space?". I know it might be counter-intuitive, but competition tends to (a) validate a market and (b) is a good thing that forces the standards to go up through the roof. No competition might = a monopoly, which will definitely equal subpar standards.
Yes agreed and I completely agree that competition is essential to build a micro-saas/indie-saas business. But within that context, what is the least competitive? Essentially what is competitive, but not so much that it's almost impossible to break in. For example, email marketing is so full that it might not be worth even trying.
Ok, gotcha. Here's my perspective:
I try to look at what industries might be ready for disruption. There are a variety of signs for this, but what I focus in on is (a) A market that is dominated by a few very large companies that have almost no incentive to change and (b) a market full of many smaller companies that don't necessarily tend to innovate. When viewed through the lens of social, economic and technological changes, for example, over a generation (i.e., high-speed internet access, mobile, open-source platforms rapidly expanding, baby boomer generation is starting to retire) it can paint a pretty broad picture of a naturally evolving business landscape. If you take this into consideration with what might be changing in the next 20 years (i.e., cheaper electricity, robotics, AI in general, biotechnology, nanotechnology) you might be able to laser in on that fine line between disruption, over-saturation, and non-market.
I hope this helps somewhat! 🙃