Validating demand for a YouTube Intelligence API, here's my process and early numbers
I'm testing whether there's a market for a YouTube Intelligence API (not a dashboard, an API/MCP server for developers and AI agents).
The thesis
Every marketing vertical has API-first intelligence tools except YouTube:
- SEO → Semrush API, DataForSEO
- Ads → Foreplay API (just launched)
- Social → Phyllo, Modash
YouTube has 31M channels, vidIQ has 20M users and TubeBuddy has 10M, but neither offers a public API. The YouTube Data API v3 is free but gives raw metrics, not intelligence (no scoring, no optimization, no recommendations).
What I'd build
REST API + MCP server with endpoints for:
- Content gap analysis (high YouTube search demand, few quality videos)
- Title scoring + improvement suggestions
- Thumbnail CTR prediction
- Hook analysis (first 15 seconds of video transcript)
My validation process
Day 1-2: Mined 1-star reviews of vidIQ and TubeBuddy on G2 and Chrome Web Store. Found 20+ complaints specifically about lack of API access and inability to automate workflows.
Day 3: Built a landing page with mock API responses and real pricing ($19/$99/$399 tiers). Included a "Get API Key" CTA and a "Join Waitlist" CTA to measure intent vs. curiosity.
Day 4: Set up Plausible analytics + Tally email capture + Stripe for founding member checkout ($99 one-time for lifetime Pro).
Day 5-now: Driving traffic via Reddit (r/SideProject, r/SaaS, r/youtube) and Twitter threads.
Early numbers (I'll update these live)
- Landing page visitors: 2105
- Email signups: 34
- Founding member payments: 0
What I'm unsure about
- Is the MCP distribution channel (listing on MCP directories like mcp.so, PulseMCP, etc.) actually going to drive developer discovery? The ecosystem is new.
- Should I focus on agencies (higher ARPU, longer sales cycle) or individual developers (lower ARPU, faster adoption)?
- YouTube API quota limits might constrain my ability to collect training data for scoring models. Anyone dealt with quota scaling for a commercial product?
Landing page: https://brightbean.xyz/
Would love feedback, especially from anyone who's built API products or sold to developers. What am I missing?
Jan, really useful writeup - publishing the 0 paid conversion
number publicly is rare. Got two questions while it's fresh:
(1) Of the 34 signups, did they cluster into a specific buyer
profile (creators? agent builders? SaaS folks)?
(2) Which did you talk to personally, and what did they say
about why they didn't upgrade?
2105 visitors and 34 email signups is a 1.6% conversion rate, which is honest — for an API product targeting developers, free signup conversion typically runs 1-3%, so you're in range. The 0 founding member payments with 34 signups is the signal to investigate: is the jump from 'interested' to '9 one-time' too large, or is the timing wrong?
On agencies vs developers: agencies are typically better first customers for an API product because they can justify the ARPU and they have specific, repeatable use cases. Individual developers often want free tiers and build PoCs they never productize. The fast-follow move: find one agency that does YouTube content production and solve their specific workflow problem. Their exact use case becomes your case study for other agencies.
One thing to test: offer a white-glove trial to 5 agencies — you run the API calls and deliver results manually. This validates whether the intelligence is actually useful before you build the full API infrastructure, and gives you real customer language for the landing page.
The MCP distribution question is real — the ecosystem is very new. GitHub and direct developer forums (r/MachineLearning, specific AI Discord servers) are higher-conversion than MCP directories right now.