How To Start A Micro SaaS (Bonus: 5 NEW Micro SaaS Ideas)

In today's fast-paced digital world, Micro SaaS businesses have emerged as a popular and profitable venture for aspiring entrepreneurs. If you've been wondering how to start a micro saas, you've come to the right place. In this comprehensive guide, we will delve deep into the world of Micro SaaS, exploring its unique characteristics, the advantages it offers, and the critical steps to launch a successful business in this domain.

Moreover, we will share some exciting micro saas ideas and opportunities, focusing on AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and popular platforms such as Slack and Shopify. By the end of this article, you'll have a solid understanding of the Micro SaaS landscape and the know-how to kickstart your own venture in 2023.

So, let's dive in and uncover the secrets to building a thriving Micro SaaS business.

Understanding Micro SaaS

What is Micro SaaS

A Micro SaaS, or Micro Software as a Service, is a small-scale software business that focuses on solving a specific niche problem. Unlike large-scale SaaS companies that cater to a broad range of customers, Micro SaaS businesses target a narrower audience, often addressing unique challenges or pain points. By doing so, they can provide tailored solutions that effectively meet the needs of their clients. Key characteristics of Micro SaaS businesses include:

1. Small-scale software as a service: Micro SaaS businesses are typically operated by small teams or even solo founders, providing software services to a limited number of customers.
2. Niche focus: These businesses target a specific market segment or industry, allowing them to concentrate their efforts on developing specialized solutions.
3. Low operational costs: Micro SaaS businesses require minimal infrastructure, resources, and personnel, which significantly reduces operational costs and makes it easier for entrepreneurs to get started.

Micro-saas is also a term that relates to solopreneurs, bootstrappers, or indie hackers.

They all relate to the ability, skills, and of vision to build a small, scalable, and efficient company that relies on small, effective, and niche company.

Why Micro SaaS is a good business model

There are several reasons why a Micro SaaS is an attractive business model for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs, especially those just starting in the software industry. These advantages make Micro SaaS a compelling choice for those seeking scalable and flexible opportunities:

1. Scalability: Micro SaaS businesses can grow rapidly with minimal investment in infrastructure or personnel. Due to their digital nature, they can serve a global customer base without the need for a physical presence in multiple locations.
2. Flexibility: Entrepreneurs can experiment with different ideas and pivot quickly if a particular idea isn't working. The lean nature of a Micro SaaS allows for faster iteration and adaptation to customer feedback.
3. Low barriers to entry: Minimal capital investment is required to get started, allowing entrepreneurs to test ideas quickly and refine their offerings based on real-world feedback. This enables them to launch their Micro SaaS with lower financial risk.
4. Recurring revenue: Subscription-based pricing models provide a steady stream of income for the business. This predictable revenue allows entrepreneurs to plan for future growth and reinvest in their businesses more effectively.

For example, here is an example of why Alex Delivet got started with a micro-saas as a solopreneur:

In summary, the Micro SaaS business model offers a unique blend of scalability, flexibility, and affordability, making it an ideal choice for indie hackers who want to enter the software industry without the need for significant upfront investment.

By focusing on niche markets and adopting a customer-centric approach, Micro SaaS businesses can carve out a unique position in the market and enjoy lasting success.

The Lean Startup Framework

When looking to create a micro company as a solopreneur, it's essential to adopt an agile and efficient approach to product development. The Lean Startup Framework, developed by Eric Ries, is a highly effective methodology for entrepreneurs. This approach emphasizes rapid development, testing, and learning from real customers to increase the likelihood of success and minimize the risk of failure.

By following the principles of the Lean Startup Framework, entrepreneurs can quickly test their ideas, validate their assumptions, and refine their product offerings. Here are the key principles of this framework:

1. Build-Measure-Learn loop: The core of the Lean Startup Framework is the Build-Measure-Learn loop, which encourages entrepreneurs to develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), gather feedback from real customers, and use the insights to iterate and improve their product. By continuously cycling through this loop, businesses can refine their offerings and eliminate features or ideas that do not add value to their customers.
2. Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Creating an MVP is a crucial step in the Lean Startup Framework. An MVP is the simplest version of your product that delivers value to customers, allowing you to test your assumptions and gather feedback with minimal time and resources. By focusing on the core features of your Micro SaaS, you can efficiently launch and validate your idea without investing too much effort into developing an elaborate, full-featured product. This enables you to gather insights and make data-driven decisions to enhance your product offering.
3. Pivot or persevere: Based on the feedback from your MVP, you need to make a crucial decision: whether to continue with the current approach or pivot to a new idea. This decision should be informed by the insights you have gained from your customers and the market. If your MVP is well-received and shows promise, you can persevere and continue building upon it. However, if the feedback indicates that your idea is not solving a real problem or providing sufficient value, it may be time to pivot and explore a different direction. This process of learning and adapting is crucial for the success of any Micro SaaS business.
4. Validated learning: One of the most important aspects of the Lean Startup Framework is the concept of validated learning. This means that every decision you make in your Micro SaaS journey should be backed by data and insights derived from real-world testing. By focusing on validated learning, you can avoid making decisions based on assumptions and instead make informed choices that drive your business forward.

Applying the Lean Startup Framework to your Micro SaaS business can help you quickly develop and test ideas, ultimately increasing your chances of success. By adopting this agile and customer-centric approach, you'll be well-equipped to navigate the challenges and uncertainties that come with launching a new venture in the software industry.

Identifying Opportunities for Micro SaaS

One of the critical steps to start a micro SaaS is to identify lucrative opportunities in the market. This process involves conducting thorough market research, understanding customer pain points, and analyzing existing solutions to uncover gaps where your Micro SaaS can provide unique value.

As explained by Mat De Sousa, founder of Wide Bundle, an app for Shopify website:

By keeping an eye on emerging trends and new technologies, you can identify micro saas ideas that have the potential to disrupt the market and provide exceptional value to your customers. Here are some tips to help you identify promising opportunities:

Market research

1. Understand your target audience: Before you can develop a successful Micro SaaS, you need to have a deep understanding of your target audience. Get to know your customer. Ask them about what they like, what problems they have, and what solutions they currently leverage. The more you're able to get to know them, the better your chance at figuring out how to create a solution they'll be willing to pay for.
2. Analyze industry trends: Keep an eye on emerging trends and technologies within your target industry. By staying informed about the latest developments, you can identify opportunities where your Micro SaaS can provide unique value and differentiate itself from the competition.
3. Study existing solutions: Research the existing solutions available in your target market to identify potential gaps in their offerings. Look for ways to enhance or differentiate your Micro SaaS from these existing solutions, providing additional value or a unique selling proposition to attract customers.
4. Talk to ecosystem users: Businesses have needs and those needs might be fulfilled by the features offered by the solutions they are using. By building on top of these platforms, you can leverage their audience and remain low on marketing spend while focusing on niche features missing.

As an example, here is how Antoine Milkoff identifies an opportunity in a thriving market:

5 Winning Micro SaaS Ideas For 2023

The Micro SaaS landscape has changed tremendously since the beginning of 2023. There has been a wave of AI technology, and every aspiring micro saas entrepreneur should be asking themselves how they can leverage AI in their business.

To help spark your creativity and provide some inspiration, we've compiled a list of micro saas ideas that leverage AI tools and popular platforms. These ideas can serve as a starting point as you explore opportunities to start a micro saas that addresses niche problems and offers unique value to your customers.

1. AI-Powered Product Description Generator

AI programs like ChatGPT and Notion are very good at generating text for projects. One could relatively easily build an app that uses ChatGPT to rewrite product descriptions at the touch of a button.

While this basic idea already exists, you could go a step further and build in an SEO tool that automatically analyzes the keywords you should be using, and includes them in the product description. This would be especially useful for dropshipping stores that are working with a lot of third-party products, and want a quick solution that doesn't take much effort.

2. Apps on top of a platform like Crisp

Some platforms might be lacking advanced features because of their market position.

Indeed, some features are more related to mid-market or enterprise customers. Thus these platforms are targeting SMBs. That’s why it's not a top priority because it requires lots of deep work.

Micro-saas builders can take advantage of this strategy to create an app on top of a platform where users are already spending a lot of time.

Here are 5 features you could build as a micro-saas on top of Crisp marketplace:

• SLA plugin that helps companies to prioritize conversations. This plugin helps to stay in between the service level agreements the company has signed with its customers.
• Google Analytics plugin that helps to track automatically the impact of a live chat on the conversion rate.
• Shopify to WhatsApp conversation plugin. This feature is a great improvement in terms of customers’ experience as online merchants will have the ability to push automated WhatsApp messages to their customers at any step of the customers’ lifecycle (think order status here for example).
• Advanced contact form plugin to offer a customizable and advanced contact form to be embedded throughout

3. Workflow Management App For Slack

Many teams are fully remote right now, and tons of them use platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams for communication. These tools have marketplaces full of apps that are built on top of the platform, allowing for tons of added features and functionality.

You could build an app that uses AI to help businesses manage and engage with their remote teams. This idea is a bit vague in nature because you need to validate what problems these businesses are facing, but there's definitely a lot of potential in the Slack marketplace.

4. A Chrome Extension For Job Seekers

Have you ever applied for a job online, and after you finished uploading your resume, it asked you to fill in all of your work experience one paragraph at a time?

This is just one of the many annoying aspects of searching for a job. But, these problems are perfect for entrepreneurs to solve. You could create a Chrome extension that uses AI to analyze the on-screen data and enter your info automatically. You could also create a feature to suggest answers to the questions the candidates are being asked or generate/improve on cover letters.

With all of the layoffs in early 2023, it could be the perfect time to launch this idea.

5. Employee Engagement App Using AI Art

In case you missed it, there was a big trend in generating AI art earlier this year. By simply uploading 15-25 pictures of yourself, AI could then take your face and features and drop you into all types of art. Programs like Dall-E and Stable Diffusion could make you a cowboy, an astronaut, or whatever you want.

There's an opportunity to use this concept to build an employee engagement app on a platform like Slack. When an employee hits their metrics,  the app could automatically generate a picture of them visually succeeding.

For example, Dave crushed his sales goal for the month, so the app generated a picture of Dave as a cowboy since he is the fastest gun in the West. Sarah hit a 95% customer satisfaction score for July, so the app generated a picture of her holding up a trophy on a platform at the Olympics.

This is a fun idea that would definitely get employees engaged, especially if you could set it up to be extra funny or random.

These micro saas ideas can serve as a springboard as you brainstorm your own unique solutions. Remember, it's easy to understand what a Micro Saas is. The hard part is to properly validate your idea, and build a product people want to use. We'll cover how to start your first Micro SaaS properly in the next section.

5 Winning Micro SaaS Builders to follow in 2023

The best way to get started you started is to see how others are doing. By chance, some of the best micro-saas builders are also sharing a lot of content on how they run their company, how they manage to scale it, and how they created their small company.

Mike Strive

Mike has built a SaaS from 0 to 40k$ MRR with a very small team. His company Upvoty is a user feedback tool focused on SMBs around the world.

I run a $40,000/month software product business.

I have 0 employees.

Here are 7 tools I couldn't live without: pic.twitter.com/ap18ErnUgN

— Mike Strives ⚡️ (@mikestrives) April 26, 2023

He shares his learnings on a Youtube channel called: Mike Strives ⚡️ Vlogs

A must-follow if you're willing to create a micro-saas in the next months.

Blanklob

Youness has built an amazing community of Shopify dev app builders where they talk everything themes, custom development, Shopify scripts.

The community takes place over a Discord workspace where Youness shares updates on the different micro-saas he runs.

The latest one: Store Copilot, an AI shopping assistant for online merchants, sold over the Shopify marketplace.

Easlo

Easlo defines himself as "The Notion guy" we know he is young we know he earns a lot of money from selling Notion templates but nothing more.

I made $200,000 online in 2022.

I’m just 20, here’s how I did it:

— Easlo (@heyeaslo) October 5, 2022

He provides a lot of resources for creators, here is one you can download for free: Notion template for creators to help you get started with your next business.

Tony Dinh

Tony is handling more than 4 different micro-saas projects: https://xnapper.com/, https://www.typingmind.com/ or https://blackmagic.so/ are some of his work.

$10K revenue! 🥳

- started as a weekend side project
- domain https://t.co/kx5nDaaCO2 bought on 2nd Mar
- MVP released on 6 Mar
- 7 Mar: $1K
- 8 Mar: $2K
- 9 Mar: $4K
- 10 Mar: $10K!

- 11 Mar (tomorrow): Launch on Product Hunt! pic.twitter.com/fxrRhk86Kd

— Tony Dinh 🎯 (@tdinh_me) March 10, 2023

He defines himself as an indie-hacker which is a well-known term for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs building micro-saas.

You can find everything about him following his website: https://tonydinh.com/

Mat De Sousa

Mat is a French entrepreneur sharing many tips and tricks on how he built a 500k$ ARR app on the Shopify ecosystem.

We now make $500K per YEAR 🥳

We did it with Shopify Apps only! 😍

Road to $1M ARR! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/vupzB2BEGo

— Mat De Sousa (@DsMatie) March 19, 2023

He has also created a community for Shopify app builder to help solopreneurs and entrepreneurs to take advantage of his own experience and the experience of the community, you can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/shopifyappfounders/?ref=share

Wrapping up

Overall, building a new company can be an exciting, yet exhausting opportunity for new entrepreneurs. And, with all of the AI programs coming out, it has never been easier to get started. ChatGPT is capable of writing code, and there are many other tools that can remove the barriers to you getting started.

If you're still having trouble, it's okay — there are many different ways to make money online. If you don't feel ready to start your first business, you can always start with a different entrepreneurial venture instead. The important thing is to get started, make some mistakes, and learn from them. You can fail a hundred times without many consequences, and you only have to succeed once for you to have a thriving business.

Check out our blog if you're looking for more SaaS business examples. We've also recommended that you check out this article to learn how you can translate your blog into multiple languages and explode your SEO performance.

Good luck!