Thread by @landforce

Last week I asked you guys if you had any product ideas…

I'm gonna take the most liked response and show you how to build it.

Right now:

When I put out this call, I was thinking anything... consumer goods, software, service, whatever. Builders build.

@Taylor_ddd dropped this off and got a bunch of likes.

https://twitter.com/Taylor_ddd/status/1417666494268387335

SaaS gang! Software as a Service

@hey_jorhey pointed out this is a feature on Postable, which makes me like this more.

If someone else is doing it, that means there's a market. You just need an angle.

That's on you though, I'm just gonna show you how to build it.

Dear nerds,

If you're here to explain why this should be built headless on Kubernetes: log off now dork.

If you need a primer on how to build software, dive into the thread below when you're done with this one:

https://twitter.com/landforce/status/1409923677387374592

This has 3 core pieces.

1- Datasource for dates & wtf to do w/ em
2- Designs for the cards
3- Print and fulfillment of the cards

1/ Datasource & logic

There are 2 we need.

1 - Facebook API to grab your friends and their birthdays.

2 - Holidays! We'll pull in a bunch of card worthy ones.

What we do w/ this data is important, the raw friend list is useless.

You'll need to design a UI where users tell your app what to do w/ this data.

For example I might start here:

- Show users friend list
- Have users select who they care about
- Make suggestions based on who they interact with

Boom - list went from 500 to 20 they care about

With potential recipients, you need the user to tell you what you want to do on what dates.

Bday is simple.

Father's day?

Have the app show the user their male friends with the same last name and at least 15 years older.

They select their dad.

Repeat for mother's day, etc.

Now you have:

Holidays/Dates
Recipients

You're going to need addresses.

If your user wanted to send this person a card, they'd ask for their address. The easiest way to capture address might be to help them automate that via text or email.

Data complete. Now you need art.

If you've got an angle here, great. If you don't, hit Fiverr.

Tons of artists to choose from. This one is $20 for 2 sided card.

I'd do 5 birthdays, 5 mothers day, 5 fathers day, etc etc.

Negotiate a bulk price and get your 25 or 30 designs.

This is the fun and creative part, it's also where separate yourself from any competitors. Spend some time here. Find a niche.

It could also be part of your marketing going forward - adding new cards to the library or similar.

This is the place to have fun and get creative.

Your app will also need a queue for the user to put in any personal notes - you could ping the user a week before a cutoff date to write their card and select the card.

Have defaults it falls back on without custom info.

This is a UX exercise more than anything.

Next you need a Print on Demand (PoD) provider who can do personalized greeting cards 1 at a time direct to recipients.

I just googled it and found one in 60 seconds. This one is in the UK but that's not my problem -- if you wanna do this I'm sure you can find it stateside.

They start at ~$.65

I'd imagine this is one sided, without fulfillment.

Assume it'll be double that to print 2 sides, $.55 for postage, and another "side" for a personalized message.

That's $2.50 per card - validate that, I'm estimating.

Print API docs to plug into your app:
prodigi.com/print-api/

Product spec sheet on the cards themselves:
prodigi.com/download/produ…

Now you need to think about pricing.

Start on value. The user is saving a trip to the store, the card, and the hassle of mailing it. This is for one card.

You gonna charge per card? Charge monthly for up to X #?

This is make or break stuff, but it's also easy to test.

I'd keep it simple and in the $19 realm for up to ... 5 cards per month?

You get the user all tee'd up, and hope they have some months of 0 or 1 cards so you're fine if they have a few with 10.

$19/mo is $228/yr

At $2.50 COG per card, a user could send 40 cards a year and you're over 50% margins.

I think there's a business here if any of these assumptions hold up?

Look, I'm not particularly fired up about greeting cards, I just love building things and talking about it.

I build brands all day and talk about it on Twitter some too, so hit me with a follow for more tactical threads like this:

@landforce

As I always say: Builders build.