Micro SaaS Ideas & Trends in India (2021)

High margin, low risk, niche software businesses

In this newsletter, we identify new markets and ideas for Micro SaaS that are set to explode in 2021. The Indian Dream is a weekly newsletter that gives you latest Business Ideas, Opportunities and Trends direct to your inbox. Join 1,500+ other entrepreneurs looking for their next big business!

Can you think of any business that’s not being enabled by Technology? Yeah, me neither. While Software is eating the world, there are new kinds of business models that are emerging.

We’ve moved on from the traditional one-time license based, on-premise software to a recurring subscription based, cloud software. Along the way, we’ve seen some huge SaaS (Software as a Service) businesses being created (Salesforce.com, Hubspot, Freshdesk, Zoho) with revenues of more than $500m.

On the other hand, we’re also seeing an emergence of small SaaS businesses focused on serving the needs of a Niche Business Vertical. These are generally small market size & therefore not of interest to the larger SaaS companies. Enter Micro-SaaS. Built by small teams, focused on selling to a niche group of businesses. Ex: Whatsapp Plugin for Shopify Users.

In this newsletter, we discuss the opportunities & ideas for Micro SaaS that exist for founders to build a profitable business.

🧐 Market Gap

Businesses look for two things in a Software:

• Increasing Sales through Customer Experience & Management.

• Decreasing Expenses through Automation.

Every business has unique workflow needs. Software Giants can’t solve for every niche.

Enter high margin, low-risk, location independent Micro-SaaS businesses. Sometimes referred to as Vertical SaaS, Niche SaaS.

🧗 Process

Three types of Micro-SaaS

• Platform Dependent: Developed on an existing platforms (Shopify, Salesforce, etc.)

• Platform Independent: Standalone Software (desktop/web/mobile app)

• Platform Integrated: Standalone but integrated through API’s with multiple platforms (Shopify, Hubspot, etc.) - check out Justcall.io’s integration page to see what we mean.

General Steps to build a Micro SaaS Business:

• Find a niche customer need that they’re already paying for (the hardest step).

• Before developing anything, identify your distribution channels (this will influence the type of Micro-SaaS you build).

• Design a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that can solve the problem 5x better or is 5x cheaper.

• Iterate to achieve Product-Market Fit or go back to step 1.

• Scale! (but not too much)

Detailed Playbook to build a Micro SaaS Business:

We’re soon releasing a podcast episode with Gaurav Sharma of Justcall.io where he goes into a detailed 20-step playbook to create a Micro-SaaS business. Must hear. Meanwhile, checkout his twitter thread on the playbook.

🥊 Players

Follow this list on Twitter get a constant stream of Micro-SaaS knowledge.

Platform Independent

1. Ameet Mehta - Syndication Pro

   • Podcast Episode with Ameet discussing Micro SaaS Idea Discovery, Distribution Channels & Moving to India to build.

2. Tyler Tringas - StoreMapper

3. Avid Kahl - FeedbackPanda

Platform Dependent

1. Preetam Nath - SuperLemon, DelightChat

   • You can checkout our Podcast with Preetam here.

2. Shashank Kumar - PushOwl

3. Dennis Hegstead - LiveRecover

4. Aditya Rao - Kaapi

   • Our Hardcore Year - getting to 1000$ MRR

   • SaaSBoomi Podcast - Aditya Rao of Kaapi on Making Peace with $1000 MRR

Platform Integrated

1. Gaurav Sharma - Justcall.io, Helpwise

   • Listen to our Podcast Episode with Gaurav on Spotify, Apple or Google.

   • Checkout the Micro-SaaS Playbook Episode with Gaurav Sharma of JustCall.io.

2. Sarah Hum - Canny.io

3. Aditya Rao - Kaapi.team

🙏 Our Predictions

• Distribution First Model: Individuals or small teams will figure out a playbook to develop and distribute Micro-SaaS enabling them to create multiple products targeting the same user segment. Audience-First Products.

• Micro-SaaS businesses are going to be the lifestyle businesses of the near future for young individuals with knowledge of how to build software.

• Micro-SaaS as a side hustle will get popular in younger talent, giving them valuable experience on building and scaling products.

• Platform Dependent Micro-SaaS will be replicated by the platforms themselves. Shopify now offers abandoned cart recovery, essentially replicating this. BEWARE!

• Keys to Winning Micro-SaaS

  • Figuring out Distribution.

  • Identifying simple to implement solutions to niche problems.

If you want to discuss these predictions, ideas and get early access to these reports, join the TID Trends Whatsapp Group.

🛒 Micro SaaS Ideas (2021)

• Freelance as a SaaS Developer or a consultant in a niche. Identify a product opportunity. Build a Micro-SaaS product.

  • Check Tyler’s journey of building Storemapper.

  • Ideal for recent graduates or students in colleges.

• Combine deep industry knowledge with strong technology skills to make Micro-SaaS happen. Business founder also brings the distribution channel.

  • Ameet & Jacob from Syndication Pro.

  • Ideal for people with Domain and Product expertise.

• Build a SaaS Studio to invest/incubate and launch Micro-SaaS companies, leveraging economies of scale in marketing, design, admin and product management.

  • Earnest Capital, Tiny Capital.

  • Ideal for someone who has built and scaled a Micro-SaaS themselves.

🕳️ Common Pitfalls

• Developing a full-fledged SaaS product without validating via MVP.

• Building without understanding distribution channels. Micro-SaaS can be bootstrapped only if the distribution channels are set.

• Building for a problem that people are solving for free today.

🧐 Looking to explore this market?

You can drop us an email and we’ll do our best to connect you to relevant people.

📉 Challenges

“Micro-SaaS is too niche to build a high revenue business.”

Enough multi-million dollar ARR businesses to show the potential of Micro-SaaS.

“Is only relevant for people who can code”

Important to have someone in the team to who can build products, but domain knowledge can be equally important. No-code development can help get to a MVP.

🦋 Share the research with your Friends

🔗 Links

1. A Great E-Book going into the details of Micro-SaaS - Tyler Tringas’ (Storemapper) Micro SaaS E-book

2. Another book of a Micro-SaaS Entrepreneur - Arvid of Feedback Panda

3. Preetam from SuperLemon shares his perspective on Micro-SaaS

4. Micro-SaaS Ideas

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