protoventure

joined 11 months ago
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What’s a great online business to start with up to $50,000 to invest? in c/entrepreneur@indiehackers.space
[–] protoventure@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

A few ideas I've had recently:

  • Service/saas: help people set up TikTok shop. TikTok made it super confusing, you could learn how to do it, see if demand is there, then train up cheap labor on fiverr and outsource it. Eventually scale to an agency that specializes in TikTok shop/product management
  • Manufacturing saas: find some manufacturers on Alibaba that make good customizeable products and then pay a developer to build an automated quote tool for them. Market the tool and take a cut off every deal. The customer never has to wait for a quote and can buy on the spot without any correspondence. I.e. high quality gift boxes for people's packaging who are selling on Amazon and Etsy. The American services that are affordable (boxgenie, packoka, packlane) have a shittier quality product and longer lead times than China on average (I do a lot of manufacturing).
  • Sell products supporting home agriculture on Amazon. Mushroom cultivation, micro greens, grow kits for trendy vegetables etc. Start with one unique product and then cater to the audience you build
Turning an idea into a business in c/entrepreneur@indiehackers.space
[–] protoventure@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

I totally agree with this one. Some actionable steps you can do for little to no cost:

  1. Prototype the leanest version of your app on figma. The smallest version that offers value, leave the extra features for later because every feature incurs substantial build cost. Figma takes a day to learn
  2. Put up a website that sells the app. Add screens, pricing, about us page etc. you can do this with WordPress, wix, squarespace. WordPress is cheapest but hardest to learn. If you make good money, squarespace will probably look the cleanest in the shortest amount of time
  3. Test your audience. Add an email sign up to your website (MailChimp is free) where a link to the app store would usually be. A contact page as well. Then put the link and a pitch in places where your target customer will see it.

Free options: LinkedIn, Facebook groups, reddit, Instagram comments, discord groups, stackoverflow, social media, texts to friends

Paid options: social ads, influencers, podcast sponsors

  1. Use the traction to mitigate your risk. If you have 1000 signups, assume 3% will pay for the service and either invest accordingly or use the traction to pitch investors