Mainstreet saves startups $ by getting tax credits most accountant miss. Connect your payroll to them and they find money to save. Mainstreet gets a cut of savings.
I've done this by hand. Saves TONS.
No brainer to let them do it.
I heard they crush.
Where's the opportunity here?
Well, prolly doing this same thing. It's a huge, huge market. The hard part is likely acquiring customers (expensive), not the tech to make the product.
So if you have a good built in distribution (like a 1m email list :) ), it could crush
Partially owned by @awilkinson, Buyer saves startups money on software. Tell Buyer the saas you use and it appears they email the vender to get you a better deal.
I guess they scale by hiring loads of offshore folks to email venders for you.
If you spend $500k a year on SaaS, Buyer says they'll save you $76k.
I think this can be huge, but they claim they'll help you save on more than SaaS. Even office furniture.
IMHO, I'd focus solely on saas. Doing more seems super difficult.
One of my favs that no longer exists: Fixed.
Now shut down, Fixed helped me save money on parking tickets.
I used this app. It was magical. Fixed alerted me when I got a parking ticket, often before I got to me car then fought it automatically.
And if you won, you paid them $75 instead of the $150 ticket.
SF shut the app down.
@DoNotPayLaw is another app in this space. It's not as magical, but neat. They automatically send a letter to the gov to fight your ticket.
These are a few examples of NaaS that I think are interesting.
Now let's talk about new ideas where we can use this model:
1. Salary. I've hired a lot of people. The diff between good negotiators and bad is pretty big. Could easily be a 5-10% increase.
Negotiating for salaries is uncomfortable. But if you make $100k-$200k/year, this could be +$10k of extra money for you!
Having a negotiator help you reply to offer emails could be huge! And if they can get 10% of your increase, could be quite lucrative for writing 3 or 4 emails
2. Taxes for consumers. This is already a thing. You'll hear the ads on the radio. They sound pretty shady tbh. But it's a huge space.
Companies help you negotiate debt with IRS, credit card companies.
The problem here: acquiring customers.
Debt settlement is one of the most expensive words to buy on Google.
Also, repeat customers. How often will a user use this service?
Regardless, this area is industry is intriguing simply because its old but notoriously shady. AKA: opportunity to improve.
This week we sent our 100th Trends weekly research email where we explore up and coming businesses.
Here are the top 10 rated by users:
10. 💡Expired Patent Opportunities: hims created a Viagra alternative due to an expired patent. We show other patents that are set to expire
9. Ecomm-as-a-Service 🙋: We break down the business model of ecom as a service.
8: 💸 The Rise of Digital Estate Planning: Businesses that are booming by making the process of what will happen to your digital assets after your death.
7: 🏨 Boutique Hotels: 4 months before the pandemic I wrote about booming business of creating motels. Well, here's how our insight changed during the pandemic.
No. 6: 🏗️ The Rise of Visual Novels: Visual novels out of Japan are entering the mainstream.