The 5 categories of online businesses

Reposting my intro post

There are 5 categories of online businesses:

1. Data businesses: Easy to build if you have access to data(or restructured form of widely available data) that isn't easily accessible e.g. AdForum(20 years video ads library)

2. Operation businesses: Tools that perform specific tasks for you. Great because you build once and sell forever e.g. Metafizzy(computationally heavy JS plugins)

3. Aesthetic businesses: Enable you to build visually appealing brand for yourself or your business with little effort e.g. SqSpace(build a b'ful website), Calendly(a b'ful professional appointment calendar) etc

4. Themed User Generated Content Businesses: These businesses rely on users to create content for them to keep other users engaged e.g. Indie Hackers, Twitter etc. General purpose UGC businesses like Twitter Facebook Youtube have all been taken, so now its about finding niche communities that need a discrete product with low noise

5. Infrastructure businesses: Help you move something to the cloud. e.g. Hostifi(move Unifi devices to the cloud), Apexminecrafthosting(Minecraft server hosting). These businesses are backend heavy and don't need visual appeal. Ugly websites and single scripts doing heavy lifting is enough

The goal is:

• Find a category that works for you
• Find a niche within that category that is underserved
• Build a LP for your idea and reach the community where it is engaged online
• Get preorders or signups before building product to gauge its appeal/need
• Go from idea to product in 3 weeks while getting feedback from early adopters
• Profit