Indie Startups

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šŸ”„ Crunch #027: Clean up your inbox, Bundle Shopify Subscriptions, When TikTok meets dating, AI-powered content generator
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šŸ”„ Crunch #027: Clean up your inbox, Bundle Shopify Subscriptions, When TikTok meets dating, AI-powered content generator

Bite-sized startup insights trusted by the industry leaders

Trevor-Indrek Lasn
Apr 23, 2021
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šŸ”„ Crunch #027: Clean up your inbox, Bundle Shopify Subscriptions, When TikTok meets dating, AI-powered content generator
www.indiestartups.co

Trevor here. Here are 4 startups worth your time.


šŸ‡¬šŸ‡§ Leave Me Alone: An automated and convenient way to mass-unsubscribe from unwanted emails. (Founded 2019, Total FundingĀ Amount: bootstrapped)

Users pay a one-time fee for the comfort and for the time saved. There’s a monthly subscription option for those whose inboxes are drowning in spam.

Metrics:

  • $9.2k/mo, Revenue growth rate (MoM) +454% (30 days)

  • 21k page views (30 days) — 137k page views (1 year)

  • — Check out the rest of the metrics here.

The backstory: A couple of Nomad Makers: the story of how it all began.

Why it’s worth checking out:

(1) Gaining traction and popularity among the Indie Hackers community.

(2) The team is working on a new awesome feature called ā€œInbox Shieldā€ that protects your inbox from spam and marketers — which might be a hit.

(3) Unique design and branding, check out their website to see what I mean. It’s not for everyone — but I like it, and it distinguishes them from the rest of the pack.

Source: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/leave-me-alone/revenue

Note: To save you some headache, here’s the catch — James mentioned they’re not currently interested in fundraising capital. Granted, it’s still a potentially great company to keep on your radar.

I believe anything is up for negotiation. Basecamp, a ā€œcelebrityā€ startup, swore they would never take outside funding — only to be funded by Mr. Jeff Bezos.


šŸ‡ŗšŸ‡ø Bundle: Subscription integration app for Shopify merchants and stores. (Founded 2020, Total FundingĀ Amount: angel/pre-seed stage, backed by YC)

You might wonder, why on earth would an e-commerce store need a subscription? — Here’s why it’s a great idea — selling subscription-based consumables, like coffee, tea, shaving razors, is becoming a hot trend.

For instance, shoppers pay a monthly (or annual) fee and receive a fresh batch of coffee or tea. — You’ll never run out of coffee or tea again. Brilliant! I’ll have the green tea subscription.

The options are unlimited for subscription-based store owners. I don’t shop that much, but I’ve seen a subscription-based store that sends you a fresh mix of clothes every second month.

Source: https://apps.shopify.com/bundlepayments

The backstory: ā€œWe created Bundle to help brands reimagine how they build long-term engagement—through subscription and member services.ā€ — Founder & CEO, Emily (Yang) Yuhas

Why it’s worth checking out:

(1) I’m bullish on $SHOP and its massive ecosystem of store-enhancing apps.

I’m bullish on Shopify since there’s 50% growth each year, and some years even topping 100% growth. For comparison, >40% YoY growth for startups is excellent, but for such a behemoth public company, it’s astonishing.

(2) Shopify features the best apps in their app store and Bundle was the #1 app the previous week.

All that growth means the Shopify app store ecosystem is in prime time for innovation right now.

Here’s the data to back my claims for Shopify gross profits growth, on an annual basis.

Shopify Revenue & Operating Income (Why I’m bullish) —https://hypercharts.co/shop?frequency=annual

I’m using šŸ‡ØšŸ‡¦HyperCharts for the data, which was featured in edition 14.

If you’re using Yahoo or Apple Charts, give HyperCharts a try. I think you’re gonna love it.


šŸ‡ØšŸ‡¦ Snack: A video-first dating app. When TikTok meets dating. (Founded 2020, Total FundingĀ Amount: $3.5m pre-seed)

Here’s how it works: Snack users record and upload a video and post it to a feed. Similar to how Instagram works. Once users have likedĀ each others’ videos, they are allowed to connect through direct messages

The backstory: Kim Kaplan, the CEO of Snack, went on my favorite startups/business shows — This Week in Startups. Check out the video and hear from Kim herself about the backstory. I went through it and can confirm, it’s a highly entertaining interview. — Recommend tuning in.

Why it’s worth checking out: Instead of binary swiping yes or no on Tinder — younger people prefer to date via indirect methods, such as dancing on TikTok, sharing stories on Instagram, or chatting on Snapchat.

Another reason why Snack has an advantage over older dating methods is that dating couples hate to say they met online. You know, the whole ā€œif things get serious let’s tell our parents we met at the parkā€ shebang.

The Snack team has a solid understanding of their users’ demography. Perhaps they’re able to reduce the stigmatization of online dating and make it fun again?


šŸ‡ŗšŸ‡øšŸ‡æšŸ‡¦ ContentBot: AI-powered content generator. Tweak it and generate unique and original articles. (Founded 2021, Total FundingĀ Amount: bootstrapped)

See it working live — short demo video below.

Why it’s worth checking out:

(1) Solid product, great design, innovative idea, passionate and hard-working team.

(2) Just over 3 months old startup. Gaining traction, and has over 70 paying customers already. Strong market product-fit case.

ContentBot Revenue Metrics, April 2021

The backstory: ā€œSo far, we've helped 2310 content marketers and copywriters produce over 3.2 million words of copy.

I want to be clear though - this tool is not meant to mass produce articles at scale. We are heavily against that. We at ContentBot are committed to the responsible use of AI with a cornerstone of ethical principles that put people first.

However, if you're looking to get inspiration and fight back against the dreaded blank page - you can generate meaningful copy in seconds. Simply tweak it, edit it, add to it and you're good to go!ā€ — Nick Duncan

Twitter avatar for @Nicholas_DuncanNick Duncan @Nicholas_Duncan
March was a good month for @tryContentBot Stats: šŸ’²$930 MRR | $11k ARR šŸ‘© 2000 total signups šŸ’° 66 total paying customers šŸ“ˆ 5036 new users on the site āœļø 14 new posts on the blog Goal for April: $1 600 MRR Here's an update of what happened in March šŸ‘‡

April 7th 2021

4 Retweets25 Likes

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šŸ”„ Crunch #027: Clean up your inbox, Bundle Shopify Subscriptions, When TikTok meets dating, AI-powered content generator
www.indiestartups.co
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