Skill: Unmet Need Mining (Indie Hacker / Bootstrap Edition)
Purpose
Systematic discovery of bootstrap-scale product opportunities by lurking where target users complain in public — Reddit, app store reviews, Trustpilot, G2, niche forums, Twitter/X, Hacker News, YouTube comments, Indie Hackers, Discord and Slack communities.
The goal is to turn raw, scattered complaints into qualified wedge hypotheses sized for a one-person or small team — without having to interview anyone yet.
This skill is optimized for two tracks. VC-scale ideas are explicitly out of scope (see Anti-Patterns).
Track A — B2B Micro-SaaS
- Pricing: $50–$500/mo per customer
- Target customer count: 100–1,500 paying customers
- Ramen-profitable at: ~$10k MRR (≈100 customers @ $100/mo)
- Calm Company territory: $50k–$200k MRR ($600k–$2.4M ARR)
- Patrick McKenzie (patio11): "Boring B2B SaaS is undervalued — charge more for vertical pain."
- Examples in spirit: ConvertKit (creators), Bannerbear (image automation API), SavvyCal (scheduling), Drip in early days (DTC email), Wave Accounting in early days (SMB books)
Track B — Prosumer One-Person Tools
- Pricing: $10–$50/mo subscription, or $20–$200 one-time
- Target customer count: 500–10,000 paying customers
- Ramen-profitable at: ~$5k MRR (≈250 customers @ $20/mo)
- Pieter Levels territory: $20k–$100k MRR
- Examples in spirit: DevUtils.app (Tony Dinh — Mac dev utilities), NomadList / RemoteOK (Pieter Levels), CleanShot X, niche Chrome extensions, focused iOS utilities
Hand off to other skills once you have a candidate:
office-hours — once you have a candidate, pressure-test whether it's worth buildingproduct-strategy-memo — once you've picked a direction, build the strategyproduct-management — once you're building, write the PRD
Source frameworks
| Practitioner |
Contribution |
Used in |
| Amy Hoy |
Sales Safari — the canonical "lurk where they hang out, read everything, find the pain" method (30x500 Academy, ~2010) |
Workflow spine |
| Arvid Kahl |
The Embedded Entrepreneur — pick one audience, embed deeply, mine from inside |
Step 1 (watering hole) |
| Rob Walling |
Stair-step approach; niche WTP; vertical micro-SaaS; TinySeed lens on bootstrap scale |
Reach scoring, track selection |
| Patrick McKenzie (patio11) |
Boring B2B SaaS is undervalued; charge-more for vertical pain |
Track A framing |
| Tyler Tringas |
Calm Company Fund thesis; MicroAcquire deal patterns; bootstrap unit economics |
"What's a viable size" calibration |
| Pieter Levels |
Build for niches you observe online; ship fast in public; one-person SaaS |
Track B + source selection |
| Jon Yongfook (Bannerbear) |
Solo founder $50k+ MRR via narrow API product; B2B-via-developer audiences |
Track A wedge examples |
| Tony Dinh (DevUtils) |
One-person prosumer Mac SaaS playbook |
Track B wedge examples |
| Tony Ulwick / Bob Moesta |
Jobs-to-be-Done; switch interviews; outcome-driven innovation |
Step 4 (clustering) |
| Courtland Allen (Indie Hackers) |
Community + interview corpus — proof-of-existence of niche bootstrap businesses |
Source weighting + counter-validation |
| Rob Fitzpatrick |
The Mom Test — distinguishing real signal from polite noise |
Step 7 (counter-validate) |
Inline glosses (use when teaching the user):
- Micro-SaaS — a SaaS designed to be run by 1–3 people, targeting a narrow audience, profitable at <2k customers. Term popularized by Tyler Tringas ~2014.
- Wedge — the narrowest possible first product that gets you a beachhead. In bootstrap context: usually a single workflow for a single persona, never a "platform."
- WTP — willingness to pay. Bootstrappers care about WTP more than reach. This is the inversion of the VC mindset.
- Stair-step approach — Rob Walling's three-rung path: (1) one-time product or simple SaaS in a niche → (2) recurring micro-SaaS → (3) larger SaaS. Each rung funds the next.
- Calm Company — Tyler Tringas's framing for low-burn, profitable, founder-owned businesses ($1M–$10M ARR, no VC). The opposite of blitzscaling.
- JTBD — Jobs-to-be-Done. Frame complaints as "the user is trying to get job X done."
- Sales Safari — Amy Hoy's coinage. The original "go where they complain, read everything, take notes" method that this skill is built on.
When to use this skill
- Looking for a B2B micro-SaaS or prosumer tool idea, no specific direction yet
- Validating whether a vertical pain you suspect is real, frequent, and affordable to solve solo
- Pre-customer-discovery: building a hit list of pains BEFORE talking to people
- Looking for adjacent vertical opportunities in a market you already know
- Looking for a wedge into a category where horizontal tools (Notion, Airtable, Excel) are being bent for vertical use cases
- Generating a backlog of bootstrap-shaped ideas to filter through
office-hours
Not this skill:
| Situation |
Use instead |
| You already have an idea and want to pressure-test it |
office-hours |
| You're ready to talk to users to validate |
The Mom Test (book/method — outside this skill) |
| You're past PMF and optimizing strategy |
product-strategy-memo |
| You're scoping a feature inside an existing product |
product-management |
| You're looking for a VC-fundable startup |
Wrong skill — bootstrap economics differ; see Anti-Patterns |
Pick your track first
Decide A or B before you start mining. They use different sources, pain phrases, and ARPU calibration. Mixed-track clusters score badly because they're usually two different opportunities pretending to be one.
|
Track A — B2B Micro-SaaS |
Track B — Prosumer Tools |
| Audience |
Ops / finance / legal / trades / HR / RevOps; vertical roles in SMB or mid-market |
Devs / designers / creators / marketers / hobbyists with disposable income |
| Best sources |
G2, Capterra, Reddit (r/sysadmin, r/humanresources, r/RealEstateInvesting, vertical subs), Glassdoor "cons", niche industry forums, Indie Hackers B2B success stories |
App Store / Play Store / Chrome Web Store, Indie Hackers, Hacker News, Twitter/X, YouTube tutorial comments, prosumer subreddits, Discord communities |
| Best pain phrases |
"We still track [X] in spreadsheets / Notion / Airtable", "the [department] software is from [old year]", "we built a custom internal tool for", "[incumbent] is too expensive for our size" |
"I wish there was an app for", "is there a Chrome extension", "I built a script to", "[tool] doesn't have [feature]", "tried [product] but it doesn't [specific]" |
| WTP signals |
Already pay for adjacent SaaS ($X00–$X,000/mo budget exists); manual VA labor; spreadsheet hell; expensive incumbent ("we'd pay if it was half the price") |
Already pay for tools in the workflow ($5–$50/mo each); buy templates, courses, presets; tip creators; have Patreon subscriptions |
| Wedge formula |
"[Vertical persona] can't easily [job], currently uses [bent horizontal tool], would pay $50–$500/mo for [narrow vertical workflow]" |
"[Prosumer persona] can't easily [task], currently uses [hack/script/manual workflow], would pay $10–$50/mo or $20–$200 one-time for [polished single-purpose tool]" |
| Ramen profitable at |
~100 customers @ $100/mo = $10k MRR |
~250 customers @ $20/mo = $5k MRR |
| Beware |
Long sales cycles in enterprise; bigger contracts ≠ better business for solo founder |
Low-WTP audiences (students, hobbyists who won't pay); copycat risk on App Store |
You can run both tracks in parallel — just score them separately. The rubric weights reach and WTP differently per track.
The workflow
1. Pick a watering hole → target audience + 1-3 sources (informed by track)
2. Cast a search net → structured queries on pain phrases (track-specific)
3. Capture verbatims → structured table, raw quotes only
4. Cluster by JTBD → group pains by underlying job
5. Score → Pain × Frequency × WTP × Reach × Solution Gap (bootstrap-weighted)
6. Synthesize a wedge → track-specific formula, realistic ARPU
7. Counter-validate → rule of three: 3+ unrelated voices, same words
8. Decide → pursue / park / kill — AND kill VC-bait shapes
Step 1 — Pick a watering hole
You can't mine "the internet." Pick one audience and 1–3 sources where they congregate publicly. Arvid Kahl's Embedded Entrepreneur move: depth beats breadth.
A watering hole is a triple: (audience, source, expected pain density).
See templates/sources-playbook.md for source-by-source how-to-mine details, including the bootstrap-specific shortlist (MicroAcquire / Acquire.com listings, Indie Hackers product pages, TinySeed portfolio, Failory, BuiltWith).
Rule: if you can't name the audience in a single sentence ending in a job title, vertical, or hobby with disposable income, you haven't picked one yet. "People who use computers" is not an audience. "Solo bookkeepers serving 5–30 small business clients" is. "Hobbyist 3D printer owners who run a Bambu X1C" is.
Step 2 — Cast a search net
Use pain phrases — patterns that almost always signal an unmet need. Run them as Google site-searches against each source. The Pain Phrase Library below is the highest-leverage table in this skill.
For Reddit specifically, gummysearch.com is purpose-built and worth the cost if mining seriously. F5Bot does free keyword alerts. BuiltWith lets you reverse-engineer what tools a competitor's customers use — find users of incumbent → mine their complaints elsewhere.
Step 3 — Capture verbatims
Capture quotes, not summaries. Exact words become your headlines, landing-page copy, ad targeting, search keywords. Paraphrasing destroys this asset.
Use the table in templates/capture-table.md. Minimum columns:
| Source URL | Verbatim quote | Persona signal | Frequency signal | WTP signal | Current workaround |
Aim for 30–50 verbatims before clustering. Less than 20 and you're pattern-matching on noise.
Step 4 — Cluster by JTBD
Group verbatims by underlying job, not surface feature. Two complaints — "I wish [tool] had Slack integration" and "I have to copy-paste from [tool] into our team chat every morning" — are the same JTBD: get [tool]'s output in front of my team without manual work.
Frame each cluster as: "When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome]."
Aim for 3–8 clusters from 30–50 verbatims.
Step 5 — Score
Use the rubric in templates/evaluation-rubric.md, calibrated for bootstrap economics — small concentrated reach + high WTP wins, not "huge addressable market."
Quick version, 1–5 per dimension:
| Dimension |
Bootstrap lens |
| Pain intensity |
Caps, swearing, "I hate", switching threats, multi-paragraph rants |
| Frequency |
Daily/weekly mentions vs. one-offs across months |
| WTP signal |
Already paying for incumbents/workarounds/freelancers/Zapier hacks. Most important dimension for bootstrappers. |
| Reach |
1k–10k addressable in a defined channel = ideal. >100k = will attract VC-backed competitors. <500 = math doesn't close at target ARPU. |
| Solution gap |
Horizontal tool bent for vertical use (Notion-as-CRM for X, Airtable-as-PMS for Y) = goldmine. One vocal incumbent with vocal haters = good. Greenfield in a hot space = will attract competition fast. |
Step 6 — Synthesize a wedge
For each top-scoring cluster, write one sentence in the track-specific shape.
Track A (B2B micro-SaaS):
[Vertical persona] can't easily [do job], so they currently [bent horizontal tool / workaround], and would pay $50–$500/mo for a tool that [narrow vertical workflow].
Track B (Prosumer):
[Prosumer persona] can't easily [do task], so they currently [hack / manual workflow / DIY script], and would pay $10–$50/mo or $20–$200 one-time for [polished single-purpose tool].
Examples:
(Track A) Independent insurance brokers running 50–500 active client policies can't easily track which clients are due for annual renewal review, so they currently maintain a color-coded Google Sheet they update manually each Monday, and would pay $80–$150/mo for a tool that pulls policy renewal dates from their AMS, generates the weekly call list, and sends auto-reminders with one-click logging.
(Track B) Indie game devs running playtests on itch.io can't easily collect structured feedback from testers without spamming them with Google Forms, so they currently use a Notion database + manual reminders, and would pay $19/mo (or $99 one-time) for a tool that generates per-build feedback forms, deduplicates testers, and shows a heatmap of where playtesters drop off.
The sentence should be so specific that the persona, hearing it, would say "yes, that's exactly me."
Step 7 — Counter-validate (rule of three)
For each wedge, find 3+ unrelated voices describing the same pain in similar words. If you can't, the cluster was an artifact of you wanting it to be real.
Three real signals beats thirty plausible ones. Cheapest validation step in the entire workflow.
Bonus counter-validation: search MicroAcquire / Acquire.com for sold businesses with similar wedge shape. If a $200k-ARR business with this shape already sold for 3–4x, you have proof the market closes.
Step 8 — Decide
| Pain × Freq × WTP |
Reach |
Verdict |
| High / High / High |
1k–10k concentrated |
Pursue — ideal bootstrap shape; hand off to office-hours |
| High / High / High |
10k–100k |
Pursue if you can move fast — risk of VC-backed competitor entering |
| High / High / High |
<1k |
Maybe — only if ARPU can be $500+/mo (Track A vertical only) |
| High / Low / Mid |
Any |
Park — re-mine in 3–6 months |
| Mid / High / Low |
Any |
Vitamin trap — kill or radically reframe |
| Any |
Locked (regulated, distribution-gated) |
Kill — not for solo founder |
| Any |
Requires VC scale to monetize |
Kill — wrong skill (see Anti-Patterns) |
Output = a ranked shortlist of wedge sentences with evidence links. Feed top 1–3 into office-hours.
Pain Phrase Library
The single most reusable artifact in this skill. Copy-paste into Google with site: operators.
Universal (both tracks)
| Phrase |
What it signals |
Strength |
| "I wish there was" |
Unmet need, problem-aware |
High |
| "Is there a tool that" / "Is there an app that" |
Actively searching, ready to buy |
Very high |
| "Looking for an alternative to [product]" |
Switch intent, incumbent failing |
Very high |
| "I would pay for" / "I'd pay $X for" |
Direct WTP statement |
Very high |
| "I built a [spreadsheet / script / Zap] to" |
DIY workaround — pre-qualified buyer |
Very high |
| "I switched from X to Y because" |
Switch interview gold (JTBD) |
Very high |
| "Manually" / "by hand" / "copy-paste" |
Automation opportunity |
High |
| "Anyone know how to" + repeated |
Workflow gap, no good answer |
Medium |
| "Does anyone else" + complaint |
Looking for validation, community pain |
Medium |
| "This used to work but now" |
Regression in incumbent — switching window |
High |
Track A — B2B Micro-SaaS specific
| Phrase |
Signal |
| "We still track [X] in spreadsheets" |
Bent horizontal tool — vertical SaaS wedge |
| "We use Notion / Airtable / Excel to manage [vertical workflow]" |
Very high — proven WTP for the bent tool, ready for a purpose-built one |
| "[Incumbent] is too expensive for our size" |
Downmarket wedge |
| "We built a custom internal tool for [X]" |
Internal-tools-as-a-service opportunity |
| "Our [department] software is from [old year]" |
Legacy vendor vulnerability |
| "[Incumbent] charges per seat and we have a lot of [contractors / casual users]" |
Pricing-model wedge |
| "We hired a VA / freelancer to do [X]" |
Productize the labor |
| "We're stuck on [incumbent] because of [integration / data]" |
Migration-tool wedge |
Track B — Prosumer specific
| Phrase |
Signal |
| "I wish there was a [Mac / Chrome / iOS] app for" |
Platform-specific niche tool |
| "I tried [tool] but it doesn't [specific feature]" |
Feature-gap wedge |
| "Is there a Chrome extension that" |
Extremely buyable surface |
| "I'd pay [$$] for [specific narrow tool]" |
Direct WTP |
| "I run [hobby/tool/setup] and there's no good way to" |
Hobbyist niche with disposable income |
| "[Software] used to do this but they removed it" |
Disenfranchised user base — instant audience |
| "[Software] got acquired and now it's terrible" |
Beloved tool decay — audience shopping for replacement |
Sources at a glance
Detailed playbook in templates/sources-playbook.md. Quick summary, bootstrap-weighted:
| Source |
Best for |
Pain density |
Bootstrap fit |
| G2 / Capterra |
Track A — vertical SaaS opportunities |
Very High |
Excellent — role-tagged, company-size-tagged |
| Reddit (vertical subs) |
Both tracks — depth + persona context |
High |
Excellent |
| App / Play / Chrome Store |
Track B — prosumer tools |
Very High |
Excellent for Track B |
| Indie Hackers |
Both — proof of bootstrap viability + community pain |
Medium-High |
Excellent (also for counter-validation) |
| Glassdoor "Cons" |
Track A — internal tools opportunities at named companies |
Medium |
Strong — underused |
| Niche forums (BiggerPockets, Gearspace, BoardGameGeek, etc.) |
Both — passionate niches with WTP |
Very High |
Excellent — near-zero competition |
| Hacker News |
Track B — dev tools, prosumer |
High |
Strong |
| MicroAcquire / Acquire.com listings |
Demand pattern intel — what sells, at what multiple |
High (proven) |
Strong — proof of WTP |
| YouTube tutorial comments |
Both — prosumer + B2B software reviews |
High |
Strong |
| Trustpilot |
DTC / services / some SaaS |
High |
Medium |
| Twitter / X |
Both — real-time signal |
Medium |
Medium (noisy) |
| Discord / Slack |
Both — embedded community pain |
Very High |
Strong (access-gated) |
| Quora |
Both — beginner-level pain |
Medium |
Medium |
Anti-patterns — VC-bait shapes (auto-kill for bootstrappers)
These shapes work for venture-funded teams and fail for solo founders. If a cluster maps to one of these, kill it regardless of pain score.
| Shape |
Why it kills bootstrappers |
| Two-sided marketplaces |
Need supply AND demand from day one — chicken-and-egg requires capital to subsidize one side |
| Pure network-effect / social products |
Value scales with user count; below threshold = worthless |
| Ad-supported consumer |
Needs millions of MAUs to monetize. You don't have a CAC budget for that. |
| Enterprise sales (>$25k ACV) |
6–18 month sales cycles, founder = salesperson, can't build while pitching |
| Hardware |
Capital-intensive, supply chain, returns, support burden |
| "Lower the price of [commodity]" |
Race to bottom; margins compress; no moat |
| Markets dominated by well-funded competitors |
They'll outspend you on CAC, integrations, and brand. Pick markets they consider too small. |
| "AI wrapper" with no audience moat |
LLM costs eat the margin; next model release commoditizes you |
| Anything requiring regulatory clearance (PHI, banking, securities) |
Multi-year compliance burden before first dollar |
| Audiences who refuse to pay (students, pre-monetization "creators", unfunded hobbyists) |
Free vitamin trap |
These are real opportunities — just not for you with this skill. Note them and move on.
Positive signals — bootstrap goldmines
The inverse: shapes that work especially well at bootstrap scale.
| Shape |
Why it works |
| Vertical SaaS where horizontal tools are bent |
Notion-as-CRM-for-real-estate, Airtable-as-PMS-for-clinics, Excel-as-ERP-for-trades. Proven WTP for the bent tool = pre-qualified market for the purpose-built one. |
| Internal-tools-as-a-service |
"We built this for our company and others want it." (ConvertKit started as a creator's internal tool.) |
| Long-tail features incumbents won't build |
$1B incumbents won't prioritize features that only matter to a 5k-customer segment. Build there. |
| Disenfranchised user bases |
When a beloved tool gets acquired and degraded (or shut down), its users become an instant audience. Watch acquisitions, post-mortems, "X is dead, what's the alternative?" threads. |
| Hobbyist niches with disposable income |
Audio engineers, indie game devs, woodworkers, ham radio operators, board gamers, audiophiles, real estate investors, sim racing, RV travelers, knife makers, photographers, indie filmmakers |
| Adjacent to an existing platform with proven WTP |
Tools FOR Substack writers, FOR Shopify merchants, FOR Notion users, FOR Etsy sellers, FOR Roam Research users. Distribution + qualified buyers built-in. |
| Workflows currently done by a freelancer / VA |
If people pay $300–$2,000/mo for someone to do X manually, you can sell a $50–$200/mo tool that does 80% of X. |
| Boring B2B verticals (patio11) |
Plumbers, dental offices, short-term rental hosts, accounting firms, nonprofits, churches, fitness studios. Underserved by Silicon Valley, high WTP, sticky. |
Common mistakes
- Mining for ideas you've already decided to build. Confirmation bias surfaces what you want to see. Mine the audience first, let the cluster pick the idea.
- Summarizing instead of quoting. Verbatims are the product. Paraphrasing destroys positioning, copy, and search keywords.
- One source. Reddit-only mining biases toward Reddit demographics. Triangulate with at least one non-Reddit source per audience.
- Skipping the rule of three. One vivid complaint feels like a market. It isn't.
- Mining solved problems. If three well-funded competitors exist and customers seem mostly happy, the gap is small. Look for "many bad solutions" or "horizontal tool bent for vertical" instead.
- Optimizing for sexy. Boring B2B (invoicing for plumbers, scheduling for dental offices, compliance for short-term rental hosts) beats consumer apps for bootstrappers. Don't filter "unsexy" out.
- Going too narrow without WTP proof. A 200-person niche only works if ARPU can be $500+/mo. Below that, the math doesn't close.
- Going too broad. "A better CRM" or "a better project management tool" attracts VC competition. Pick a vertical.
- Chasing hot AI/LLM spaces. Greenfield in a hot category attracts capital faster than you can ship.
Red flags (false positives)
| Signal |
Why it's misleading |
| One vivid rant with hundreds of upvotes |
High visibility ≠ high frequency. Could be cathartic, not commercial. |
| "I wish X was free" |
Negative WTP. Walk away. |
| Pain from power users only |
Doesn't generalize; market may be tiny |
| Complaint about a feature already on the incumbent's public roadmap |
Window closing fast |
| Pain in a regulated or distribution-locked space |
Kill for solo founder |
| Audience is "creators" / "hobbyists" / "students" without proven WTP |
Free vitamin trap |
| Complaints from a single Discord echo chamber |
Audience too narrow OR unrepresentative |
| Hot AI/LLM space with multiple VC-funded incumbents |
Race you can't win solo |
| "Why doesn't someone build [obvious thing]" with no replies |
Possibly already built — search before you build |
Quick handoff
When the skill completes, output to the user:
- Top 3 wedge sentences in the desperate-specificity format (Track A or B clearly marked)
- Evidence: 3+ verbatim quotes per wedge, with source URLs
- Score table showing Pain / Freq / WTP / Reach / Solution Gap for each
- Bootstrap math check: customer count × ARPU needed for ramen profitability ($5k–$10k MRR); flag if either number looks unrealistic
- VC-bait check: confirm the wedge doesn't map to any auto-kill shape
- Recommended next step: usually "feed wedge #1 into
office-hours"
That hand-off is the deliverable. Don't strategize, don't write a PRD, don't speculate on pricing beyond the ARPU band. Just surface what the audience said, which clusters cleared the rule of three, and which are bootstrap-shaped.
1---2name: unmet-need-mining3description: Mine Reddit, App Store / Play Store, Trustpilot, G2, Capterra, Hacker News, Indie Hackers, niche forums, and Discord for unmet needs and high-intensity complaints that map to indie hacker / bootstrap product opportunities — B2B micro-SaaS ($50–500/mo) and prosumer one-person tools ($10–50/mo). Amy Hoy's Sales Safari plus modern variants from Arvid Kahl, Pieter Levels, Rob Walling, Tyler Tringas, patio11, Courtland Allen, Jon Yongfook, and Tony Dinh. Use when hunting a bootstrap-scale startup idea, scanning user complaints for vertical pain points, qualifying a wedge for a one-person business, or doing pre-PMF customer discovery without (yet) talking to anyone. Triggers: 'find startup ideas', 'micro-SaaS ideas', 'mine complaints', 'unmet needs', 'pain point research', 'sales safari', 'demand discovery', 'find a wedge', 'opportunity mining', 'bootstrap idea', 'indie hacker idea'.4---56# Skill: Unmet Need Mining (Indie Hacker / Bootstrap Edition)78## Purpose910Systematic discovery of **bootstrap-scale product opportunities** by lurking where target users complain in public — Reddit, app store reviews, Trustpilot, G2, niche forums, Twitter/X, Hacker News, YouTube comments, Indie Hackers, Discord and Slack communities.1112The goal is to turn raw, scattered complaints into **qualified wedge hypotheses** sized for a one-person or small team — without having to interview anyone yet.1314This skill is optimized for two tracks. **VC-scale ideas are explicitly out of scope** (see Anti-Patterns).1516### Track A — B2B Micro-SaaS17- **Pricing:** $50–$500/mo per customer18- **Target customer count:** 100–1,500 paying customers19- **Ramen-profitable at:** ~$10k MRR (≈100 customers @ $100/mo)20- **Calm Company territory:** $50k–$200k MRR ($600k–$2.4M ARR)21- **Patrick McKenzie (patio11):** "Boring B2B SaaS is undervalued — charge more for vertical pain."22- **Examples in spirit:** ConvertKit (creators), Bannerbear (image automation API), SavvyCal (scheduling), Drip in early days (DTC email), Wave Accounting in early days (SMB books)2324### Track B — Prosumer One-Person Tools25- **Pricing:** $10–$50/mo subscription, or $20–$200 one-time26- **Target customer count:** 500–10,000 paying customers27- **Ramen-profitable at:** ~$5k MRR (≈250 customers @ $20/mo)28- **Pieter Levels territory:** $20k–$100k MRR29- **Examples in spirit:** DevUtils.app (Tony Dinh — Mac dev utilities), NomadList / RemoteOK (Pieter Levels), CleanShot X, niche Chrome extensions, focused iOS utilities3031Hand off to other skills once you have a candidate:3233- **`office-hours`** — once you have a candidate, pressure-test whether it's worth building34- **`product-strategy-memo`** — once you've picked a direction, build the strategy35- **`product-management`** — once you're building, write the PRD3637## Source frameworks3839| Practitioner | Contribution | Used in |40|---|---|---|41| **Amy Hoy** | *Sales Safari* — the canonical "lurk where they hang out, read everything, find the pain" method (30x500 Academy, ~2010) | Workflow spine |42| **Arvid Kahl** | *The Embedded Entrepreneur* — pick one audience, embed deeply, mine from inside | Step 1 (watering hole) |43| **Rob Walling** | *Stair-step approach*; niche WTP; vertical micro-SaaS; *TinySeed* lens on bootstrap scale | Reach scoring, track selection |44| **Patrick McKenzie (patio11)** | *Boring B2B SaaS is undervalued*; charge-more for vertical pain | Track A framing |45| **Tyler Tringas** | *Calm Company Fund* thesis; MicroAcquire deal patterns; bootstrap unit economics | "What's a viable size" calibration |46| **Pieter Levels** | Build for niches you observe online; ship fast in public; one-person SaaS | Track B + source selection |47| **Jon Yongfook (Bannerbear)** | Solo founder $50k+ MRR via narrow API product; B2B-via-developer audiences | Track A wedge examples |48| **Tony Dinh (DevUtils)** | One-person prosumer Mac SaaS playbook | Track B wedge examples |49| **Tony Ulwick / Bob Moesta** | Jobs-to-be-Done; switch interviews; outcome-driven innovation | Step 4 (clustering) |50| **Courtland Allen (Indie Hackers)** | Community + interview corpus — proof-of-existence of niche bootstrap businesses | Source weighting + counter-validation |51| **Rob Fitzpatrick** | *The Mom Test* — distinguishing real signal from polite noise | Step 7 (counter-validate) |5253> **Inline glosses** (use when teaching the user):54> - **Micro-SaaS** — a SaaS designed to be run by 1–3 people, targeting a narrow audience, profitable at <2k customers. Term popularized by Tyler Tringas ~2014.55> - **Wedge** — the narrowest possible first product that gets you a beachhead. In bootstrap context: usually a single workflow for a single persona, never a "platform."56> - **WTP** — willingness to pay. Bootstrappers care about WTP more than reach. This is the inversion of the VC mindset.57> - **Stair-step approach** — Rob Walling's three-rung path: (1) one-time product or simple SaaS in a niche → (2) recurring micro-SaaS → (3) larger SaaS. Each rung funds the next.58> - **Calm Company** — Tyler Tringas's framing for low-burn, profitable, founder-owned businesses ($1M–$10M ARR, no VC). The opposite of blitzscaling.59> - **JTBD** — Jobs-to-be-Done. Frame complaints as "the user is trying to get *job X* done."60> - **Sales Safari** — Amy Hoy's coinage. The original "go where they complain, read everything, take notes" method that this skill is built on.6162## When to use this skill6364- Looking for a B2B micro-SaaS or prosumer tool idea, no specific direction yet65- Validating whether a vertical pain you suspect is real, frequent, and affordable to solve solo66- Pre-customer-discovery: building a hit list of pains BEFORE talking to people67- Looking for adjacent vertical opportunities in a market you already know68- Looking for a wedge into a category where horizontal tools (Notion, Airtable, Excel) are being bent for vertical use cases69- Generating a backlog of bootstrap-shaped ideas to filter through `office-hours`7071**Not this skill:**7273| Situation | Use instead |74|---|---|75| You already have an idea and want to pressure-test it | `office-hours` |76| You're ready to talk to users to validate | The Mom Test (book/method — outside this skill) |77| You're past PMF and optimizing strategy | `product-strategy-memo` |78| You're scoping a feature inside an existing product | `product-management` |79| You're looking for a VC-fundable startup | Wrong skill — bootstrap economics differ; see Anti-Patterns |8081## Pick your track first8283Decide A or B *before* you start mining. They use different sources, pain phrases, and ARPU calibration. Mixed-track clusters score badly because they're usually two different opportunities pretending to be one.8485| | **Track A — B2B Micro-SaaS** | **Track B — Prosumer Tools** |86|---|---|---|87| **Audience** | Ops / finance / legal / trades / HR / RevOps; vertical roles in SMB or mid-market | Devs / designers / creators / marketers / hobbyists with disposable income |88| **Best sources** | G2, Capterra, Reddit (r/sysadmin, r/humanresources, r/RealEstateInvesting, vertical subs), Glassdoor "cons", niche industry forums, Indie Hackers B2B success stories | App Store / Play Store / Chrome Web Store, Indie Hackers, Hacker News, Twitter/X, YouTube tutorial comments, prosumer subreddits, Discord communities |89| **Best pain phrases** | "We still track [X] in spreadsheets / Notion / Airtable", "the [department] software is from [old year]", "we built a custom internal tool for", "[incumbent] is too expensive for our size" | "I wish there was an app for", "is there a Chrome extension", "I built a script to", "[tool] doesn't have [feature]", "tried [product] but it doesn't [specific]" |90| **WTP signals** | Already pay for adjacent SaaS ($X00–$X,000/mo budget exists); manual VA labor; spreadsheet hell; expensive incumbent ("we'd pay if it was half the price") | Already pay for tools in the workflow ($5–$50/mo each); buy templates, courses, presets; tip creators; have Patreon subscriptions |91| **Wedge formula** | "[Vertical persona] can't easily [job], currently uses [bent horizontal tool], would pay $50–$500/mo for [narrow vertical workflow]" | "[Prosumer persona] can't easily [task], currently uses [hack/script/manual workflow], would pay $10–$50/mo or $20–$200 one-time for [polished single-purpose tool]" |92| **Ramen profitable at** | ~100 customers @ $100/mo = $10k MRR | ~250 customers @ $20/mo = $5k MRR |93| **Beware** | Long sales cycles in enterprise; bigger contracts ≠ better business for solo founder | Low-WTP audiences (students, hobbyists who won't pay); copycat risk on App Store |9495You can run both tracks in parallel — just score them separately. The rubric weights reach and WTP differently per track.9697## The workflow9899```1001. Pick a watering hole → target audience + 1-3 sources (informed by track)1012. Cast a search net → structured queries on pain phrases (track-specific)1023. Capture verbatims → structured table, raw quotes only1034. Cluster by JTBD → group pains by underlying job1045. Score → Pain × Frequency × WTP × Reach × Solution Gap (bootstrap-weighted)1056. Synthesize a wedge → track-specific formula, realistic ARPU1067. Counter-validate → rule of three: 3+ unrelated voices, same words1078. Decide → pursue / park / kill — AND kill VC-bait shapes108```109110### Step 1 — Pick a watering hole111112You can't mine "the internet." Pick **one audience** and **1–3 sources** where they congregate publicly. Arvid Kahl's *Embedded Entrepreneur* move: depth beats breadth.113114A watering hole is a triple: `(audience, source, expected pain density)`.115116See **`templates/sources-playbook.md`** for source-by-source how-to-mine details, including the bootstrap-specific shortlist (MicroAcquire / Acquire.com listings, Indie Hackers product pages, TinySeed portfolio, Failory, BuiltWith).117118**Rule:** if you can't name the audience in a single sentence ending in a job title, vertical, or hobby with disposable income, you haven't picked one yet. "People who use computers" is not an audience. "Solo bookkeepers serving 5–30 small business clients" is. "Hobbyist 3D printer owners who run a Bambu X1C" is.119120### Step 2 — Cast a search net121122Use **pain phrases** — patterns that almost always signal an unmet need. Run them as Google site-searches against each source. The Pain Phrase Library below is the highest-leverage table in this skill.123124For Reddit specifically, **gummysearch.com** is purpose-built and worth the cost if mining seriously. **F5Bot** does free keyword alerts. **BuiltWith** lets you reverse-engineer what tools a competitor's customers use — find users of incumbent → mine their complaints elsewhere.125126### Step 3 — Capture verbatims127128**Capture quotes, not summaries.** Exact words become your headlines, landing-page copy, ad targeting, search keywords. Paraphrasing destroys this asset.129130Use the table in **`templates/capture-table.md`**. Minimum columns:131132| Source URL | Verbatim quote | Persona signal | Frequency signal | WTP signal | Current workaround |133134Aim for 30–50 verbatims before clustering. Less than 20 and you're pattern-matching on noise.135136### Step 4 — Cluster by JTBD137138Group verbatims by **underlying job**, not surface feature. Two complaints — "I wish [tool] had Slack integration" and "I have to copy-paste from [tool] into our team chat every morning" — are the same JTBD: *get [tool]'s output in front of my team without manual work*.139140Frame each cluster as: **"When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [outcome]."**141142Aim for 3–8 clusters from 30–50 verbatims.143144### Step 5 — Score145146Use the rubric in **`templates/evaluation-rubric.md`**, calibrated for **bootstrap economics** — small concentrated reach + high WTP wins, not "huge addressable market."147148Quick version, 1–5 per dimension:149150| Dimension | Bootstrap lens |151|---|---|152| **Pain intensity** | Caps, swearing, "I hate", switching threats, multi-paragraph rants |153| **Frequency** | Daily/weekly mentions vs. one-offs across months |154| **WTP signal** | Already paying for incumbents/workarounds/freelancers/Zapier hacks. **Most important dimension for bootstrappers.** |155| **Reach** | **1k–10k addressable in a defined channel = ideal.** >100k = will attract VC-backed competitors. <500 = math doesn't close at target ARPU. |156| **Solution gap** | Horizontal tool bent for vertical use (Notion-as-CRM for X, Airtable-as-PMS for Y) = goldmine. One vocal incumbent with vocal haters = good. Greenfield in a hot space = will attract competition fast. |157158### Step 6 — Synthesize a wedge159160For each top-scoring cluster, write **one sentence** in the track-specific shape.161162**Track A (B2B micro-SaaS):**163> **[Vertical persona]** can't easily **[do job]**, so they currently **[bent horizontal tool / workaround]**, and would pay **$50–$500/mo** for a tool that **[narrow vertical workflow]**.164165**Track B (Prosumer):**166> **[Prosumer persona]** can't easily **[do task]**, so they currently **[hack / manual workflow / DIY script]**, and would pay **$10–$50/mo or $20–$200 one-time** for **[polished single-purpose tool]**.167168Examples:169170> *(Track A)* Independent insurance brokers running 50–500 active client policies can't easily track which clients are due for annual renewal review, so they currently maintain a color-coded Google Sheet they update manually each Monday, and would pay $80–$150/mo for a tool that pulls policy renewal dates from their AMS, generates the weekly call list, and sends auto-reminders with one-click logging.171172> *(Track B)* Indie game devs running playtests on itch.io can't easily collect structured feedback from testers without spamming them with Google Forms, so they currently use a Notion database + manual reminders, and would pay $19/mo (or $99 one-time) for a tool that generates per-build feedback forms, deduplicates testers, and shows a heatmap of where playtesters drop off.173174The sentence should be so specific that the persona, hearing it, would say *"yes, that's exactly me."*175176### Step 7 — Counter-validate (rule of three)177178For each wedge, find **3+ unrelated voices** describing the same pain in **similar words**. If you can't, the cluster was an artifact of you wanting it to be real.179180Three real signals beats thirty plausible ones. Cheapest validation step in the entire workflow.181182Bonus counter-validation: search MicroAcquire / Acquire.com for sold businesses with similar wedge shape. If a $200k-ARR business with this shape already sold for 3–4x, you have proof the market closes.183184### Step 8 — Decide185186| Pain × Freq × WTP | Reach | Verdict |187|---|---|---|188| High / High / High | 1k–10k concentrated | **Pursue** — ideal bootstrap shape; hand off to `office-hours` |189| High / High / High | 10k–100k | **Pursue if you can move fast** — risk of VC-backed competitor entering |190| High / High / High | <1k | **Maybe** — only if ARPU can be $500+/mo (Track A vertical only) |191| High / Low / Mid | Any | **Park** — re-mine in 3–6 months |192| Mid / High / Low | Any | **Vitamin trap** — kill or radically reframe |193| Any | Locked (regulated, distribution-gated) | **Kill** — not for solo founder |194| **Any** | **Requires VC scale to monetize** | **Kill — wrong skill** (see Anti-Patterns) |195196Output = a ranked shortlist of wedge sentences with evidence links. Feed top 1–3 into `office-hours`.197198## Pain Phrase Library199200The single most reusable artifact in this skill. Copy-paste into Google with `site:` operators.201202### Universal (both tracks)203| Phrase | What it signals | Strength |204|---|---|---|205| "I wish there was" | Unmet need, problem-aware | High |206| "Is there a tool that" / "Is there an app that" | Actively searching, ready to buy | **Very high** |207| "Looking for an alternative to [product]" | Switch intent, incumbent failing | **Very high** |208| "I would pay for" / "I'd pay $X for" | Direct WTP statement | **Very high** |209| "I built a [spreadsheet / script / Zap] to" | DIY workaround — pre-qualified buyer | **Very high** |210| "I switched from X to Y because" | Switch interview gold (JTBD) | **Very high** |211| "Manually" / "by hand" / "copy-paste" | Automation opportunity | High |212| "Anyone know how to" + repeated | Workflow gap, no good answer | Medium |213| "Does anyone else" + complaint | Looking for validation, community pain | Medium |214| "This used to work but now" | Regression in incumbent — switching window | High |215216### Track A — B2B Micro-SaaS specific217| Phrase | Signal |218|---|---|219| "We still track [X] in spreadsheets" | Bent horizontal tool — vertical SaaS wedge |220| "We use Notion / Airtable / Excel to manage [vertical workflow]" | **Very high** — proven WTP for the bent tool, ready for a purpose-built one |221| "[Incumbent] is too expensive for our size" | Downmarket wedge |222| "We built a custom internal tool for [X]" | Internal-tools-as-a-service opportunity |223| "Our [department] software is from [old year]" | Legacy vendor vulnerability |224| "[Incumbent] charges per seat and we have a lot of [contractors / casual users]" | Pricing-model wedge |225| "We hired a VA / freelancer to do [X]" | Productize the labor |226| "We're stuck on [incumbent] because of [integration / data]" | Migration-tool wedge |227228### Track B — Prosumer specific229| Phrase | Signal |230|---|---|231| "I wish there was a [Mac / Chrome / iOS] app for" | Platform-specific niche tool |232| "I tried [tool] but it doesn't [specific feature]" | Feature-gap wedge |233| "Is there a Chrome extension that" | Extremely buyable surface |234| "I'd pay [$$] for [specific narrow tool]" | Direct WTP |235| "I run [hobby/tool/setup] and there's no good way to" | Hobbyist niche with disposable income |236| "[Software] used to do this but they removed it" | Disenfranchised user base — instant audience |237| "[Software] got acquired and now it's terrible" | Beloved tool decay — audience shopping for replacement |238239## Sources at a glance240241Detailed playbook in `templates/sources-playbook.md`. Quick summary, **bootstrap-weighted**:242243| Source | Best for | Pain density | Bootstrap fit |244|---|---|---|---|245| **G2 / Capterra** | Track A — vertical SaaS opportunities | Very High | **Excellent** — role-tagged, company-size-tagged |246| **Reddit (vertical subs)** | Both tracks — depth + persona context | High | **Excellent** |247| **App / Play / Chrome Store** | Track B — prosumer tools | Very High | **Excellent** for Track B |248| **Indie Hackers** | Both — proof of bootstrap viability + community pain | Medium-High | **Excellent** (also for counter-validation) |249| **Glassdoor "Cons"** | Track A — internal tools opportunities at named companies | Medium | **Strong — underused** |250| **Niche forums** (BiggerPockets, Gearspace, BoardGameGeek, etc.) | Both — passionate niches with WTP | Very High | **Excellent** — near-zero competition |251| **Hacker News** | Track B — dev tools, prosumer | High | Strong |252| **MicroAcquire / Acquire.com listings** | Demand pattern intel — what sells, at what multiple | High (proven) | **Strong — proof of WTP** |253| **YouTube tutorial comments** | Both — prosumer + B2B software reviews | High | Strong |254| **Trustpilot** | DTC / services / some SaaS | High | Medium |255| **Twitter / X** | Both — real-time signal | Medium | Medium (noisy) |256| **Discord / Slack** | Both — embedded community pain | Very High | Strong (access-gated) |257| **Quora** | Both — beginner-level pain | Medium | Medium |258259## Anti-patterns — VC-bait shapes (auto-kill for bootstrappers)260261These shapes work for venture-funded teams and fail for solo founders. If a cluster maps to one of these, **kill it regardless of pain score**.262263| Shape | Why it kills bootstrappers |264|---|---|265| **Two-sided marketplaces** | Need supply AND demand from day one — chicken-and-egg requires capital to subsidize one side |266| **Pure network-effect / social products** | Value scales with user count; below threshold = worthless |267| **Ad-supported consumer** | Needs millions of MAUs to monetize. You don't have a CAC budget for that. |268| **Enterprise sales (>$25k ACV)** | 6–18 month sales cycles, founder = salesperson, can't build while pitching |269| **Hardware** | Capital-intensive, supply chain, returns, support burden |270| **"Lower the price of [commodity]"** | Race to bottom; margins compress; no moat |271| **Markets dominated by well-funded competitors** | They'll outspend you on CAC, integrations, and brand. Pick markets they consider too small. |272| **"AI wrapper" with no audience moat** | LLM costs eat the margin; next model release commoditizes you |273| **Anything requiring regulatory clearance** (PHI, banking, securities) | Multi-year compliance burden before first dollar |274| **Audiences who refuse to pay** (students, pre-monetization "creators", unfunded hobbyists) | Free vitamin trap |275276These are real opportunities — just not for you with this skill. Note them and move on.277278## Positive signals — bootstrap goldmines279280The inverse: shapes that work *especially well* at bootstrap scale.281282| Shape | Why it works |283|---|---|284| **Vertical SaaS where horizontal tools are bent** | Notion-as-CRM-for-real-estate, Airtable-as-PMS-for-clinics, Excel-as-ERP-for-trades. Proven WTP for the bent tool = pre-qualified market for the purpose-built one. |285| **Internal-tools-as-a-service** | "We built this for our company and others want it." (ConvertKit started as a creator's internal tool.) |286| **Long-tail features incumbents won't build** | $1B incumbents won't prioritize features that only matter to a 5k-customer segment. Build there. |287| **Disenfranchised user bases** | When a beloved tool gets acquired and degraded (or shut down), its users become an instant audience. Watch acquisitions, post-mortems, "X is dead, what's the alternative?" threads. |288| **Hobbyist niches with disposable income** | Audio engineers, indie game devs, woodworkers, ham radio operators, board gamers, audiophiles, real estate investors, sim racing, RV travelers, knife makers, photographers, indie filmmakers |289| **Adjacent to an existing platform with proven WTP** | Tools FOR Substack writers, FOR Shopify merchants, FOR Notion users, FOR Etsy sellers, FOR Roam Research users. Distribution + qualified buyers built-in. |290| **Workflows currently done by a freelancer / VA** | If people pay $300–$2,000/mo for someone to do X manually, you can sell a $50–$200/mo tool that does 80% of X. |291| **Boring B2B verticals** (patio11) | Plumbers, dental offices, short-term rental hosts, accounting firms, nonprofits, churches, fitness studios. Underserved by Silicon Valley, high WTP, sticky. |292293## Common mistakes294295- **Mining for ideas you've already decided to build.** Confirmation bias surfaces what you want to see. Mine the audience first, let the cluster pick the idea.296- **Summarizing instead of quoting.** Verbatims are the product. Paraphrasing destroys positioning, copy, and search keywords.297- **One source.** Reddit-only mining biases toward Reddit demographics. Triangulate with at least one non-Reddit source per audience.298- **Skipping the rule of three.** One vivid complaint feels like a market. It isn't.299- **Mining solved problems.** If three well-funded competitors exist and customers seem mostly happy, the gap is small. Look for "many bad solutions" or "horizontal tool bent for vertical" instead.300- **Optimizing for sexy.** Boring B2B (invoicing for plumbers, scheduling for dental offices, compliance for short-term rental hosts) beats consumer apps for bootstrappers. Don't filter "unsexy" out.301- **Going too narrow without WTP proof.** A 200-person niche only works if ARPU can be $500+/mo. Below that, the math doesn't close.302- **Going too broad.** "A better CRM" or "a better project management tool" attracts VC competition. Pick a vertical.303- **Chasing hot AI/LLM spaces.** Greenfield in a hot category attracts capital faster than you can ship.304305## Red flags (false positives)306307| Signal | Why it's misleading |308|---|---|309| One vivid rant with hundreds of upvotes | High visibility ≠ high frequency. Could be cathartic, not commercial. |310| "I wish X was free" | Negative WTP. Walk away. |311| Pain from power users only | Doesn't generalize; market may be tiny |312| Complaint about a feature already on the incumbent's public roadmap | Window closing fast |313| Pain in a regulated or distribution-locked space | Kill for solo founder |314| Audience is "creators" / "hobbyists" / "students" without proven WTP | Free vitamin trap |315| Complaints from a single Discord echo chamber | Audience too narrow OR unrepresentative |316| Hot AI/LLM space with multiple VC-funded incumbents | Race you can't win solo |317| "Why doesn't someone build [obvious thing]" with no replies | Possibly already built — search before you build |318319## Quick handoff320321When the skill completes, output to the user:3223231. **Top 3 wedge sentences** in the desperate-specificity format (Track A or B clearly marked)3242. **Evidence**: 3+ verbatim quotes per wedge, with source URLs3253. **Score table** showing Pain / Freq / WTP / Reach / Solution Gap for each3264. **Bootstrap math check**: customer count × ARPU needed for ramen profitability ($5k–$10k MRR); flag if either number looks unrealistic3275. **VC-bait check**: confirm the wedge doesn't map to any auto-kill shape3286. **Recommended next step**: usually "feed wedge #1 into `office-hours`"329330That hand-off is the deliverable. Don't strategize, don't write a PRD, don't speculate on pricing beyond the ARPU band. Just surface what the audience said, which clusters cleared the rule of three, and which are bootstrap-shaped.
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