Day 2: Choosing Ideas to Build (2026)

The analysis in Day 1 and Day 2 is based on data and discussions from X (Twitter). Majority of the research, conclusions, and insights are drawn from there.

Learnings from Day 1

• Distribution is the moat. Build the audience before the product. X, SEO, newsletters, YouTube, communities — non-negotiable from day one.
• 80–95% of AI projects fail to deliver ROI. Winners solve a specific workflow, not "AI for X" in the abstract. Most builders stay under $1K MRR.
• Two indie categories print money: build-fast (Cursor, ShipFast) and sell-fast (Opus Clip, Bannerbear). Niche and moat beat breadth — wrappers die.
• Portfolios compound. Levels $3M+, Marc Lou $1M+, Max/Viktor $84K–$491K. Ship 3–5 small tools; clone a proven idea with one differentiator.
• Validate before you build. Talk to 10–20 users, pre-sell where possible, ship an ugly MVP in 1–2 weeks. Pricing sweet spot is $10–$99/mo.
• Money online beyond AI is real. Affiliate SEO, digital products, newsletters, gaming arbitrage — all have documented $5K–$200K+ examples.
• Local and open-source is a real wedge. Gemma 4, Qwen, DeepSeek change what is feasible to build and sell.
• The filter stays the same. Everything is noise until it makes me money. Shipping is the only metric that matters.

Known Projects That Are Making Money

Each entry below describes what the startup actually does, pulled directly from its own website. MRR is what the builder publicly reports. Where the site was unreachable, the entry is marked (unverified — please verify independently).

• levels.vc — $803K/m

  • From the site: "levels.vc — my investment fund"
  • Solution: Angel investment fund; "I'm mostly investing in AI startups"
  • Market: AI startups raising seed / Series A

• PhotoAI — $88K/m

  • From the site: "Fire your photographer" / "#1 AI Photographer"
  • Solution: AI photo and video generator; upload selfies, get on-brand photo packs
  • Features: 30M+ photos generated; curated packs (Tinder, Hinge, Luxury Lifestyle, Old Money, Instagram); first photos in under a minute after upload; free photos for every AI model you create
  • Market: Content creators, influencers, dating-app users, social-media-heavy professionals

• Vibej.am (Cursor Vibe Jam 2026) — $44K/m (via event sponsorship)

  • From the site: "Cursor Vibe Jam 2026"
  • Solution: Annual vibe-coding game jam / community event
  • Sponsors: Cursor, Bolt.new, Glif, Tripo3D
  • Market: Vibe-coding community, indie game developers

• Interior AI — $31K/m

  • From the site: "Fire your interior designer" / "#1 AI Interior App"
  • Solution: AI interior design + virtual staging — upload a photo, transform the interior completely
  • Market: Homeowners, real-estate agents, interior designers

• TrustMRR — $30K MRR

  • From the site: "The database of verified startup revenues"
  • Solution: Verified SaaS MRR database where startups list with Stripe proof
  • Features: Browse by category (AI, SaaS, Dev Tools, Fintech, Productivity, Marketing, E-commerce, Design Tools, No-Code, Analytics, Education, Health & Fitness, Social Media, Content Creation, Sales, Customer Support, Recruiting & HR, Real Estate, Travel, Security); marketplace for acquiring startups; founder profiles; leaderboard ranked by MRR; activity feed of builder updates
  • Market: Indie hackers, founders, buyers, investors

• DataFast — $21K MRR

  • From the site: "Revenue-first analytics — Find out which marketing channels drive your revenue"
  • Solution: Ties every website visitor to a Stripe charge so you can see which channel actually drives revenue
  • Features: 14-day free trial, no card required; agent mode (npm install -g @datafast/cli) lets Cursor / Claude Code / Codex query visitors, inspect revenue, and manage sites from a prompt
  • Market: Indie SaaS founders running paid + organic channels

• levelsio.com + X — $17K/m

  • Creator revenue (X + blog) — personal brand

• Ship or Die — $15K MRR (unverified — please verify independently)

  • Site unreachable at the usual indie URLs. Listed in Marc Lou's portfolio.

• Nomads.com (was NomadList) — $15K/m

  • From the site: "Best Places to Live for Digital Nomads"
  • Solution: Crowdsourced, filterable database of cities
  • Features: Filter by cost, internet speed, weather, safety, air quality, community size, racism scores, fun; dating app; friend finder; chat; members map; meetups; NomadGPT; FIRE calculator; climate finder; "Fastest growing" cities dashboard; "Best place now" ranking
  • Market: Digital nomads, remote workers

• GPT Watermark Remover — $10K MRR (recently exited: $5K + 50% profit)

  • From the site: "Free ChatGPT watermark remover online — AI text watermark detector"
  • Solution: Browser tool that strips hidden AI text watermarks (zero-width characters, signatures) from ChatGPT output
  • Features: Instant detection visualizer; works with Word and Markdown copy-paste
  • Market: Students, marketers, anyone repackaging AI output

• CodeFast — $9K MRR

  • From the site: "Learn to code in weeks, not months" / "Everything you need to build your SaaS or any online business—even as a complete beginner"
  • Solution: 12-hour / 215-lesson video course by Marc Lou teaching web dev + SaaS building
  • Features: Support from instructor; private Discord community; lifetime updates; bundled with ShipFast at $299
  • Market: Complete beginners and aspiring indie hackers who want to ship a micro-SaaS in 2–3 weeks

• Pix — $8,088 MRR (unverified — please verify independently)

  • Indie product. Site unreachable.

• MoveMRR — $7.5K MRR (recently sold 50% for $10K)

  • From the site: "Transfer Stripe Subscriptions to a New Account Without Losing MRR"
  • Solution: Migrates active subscriptions between Stripe accounts when ownership of a SaaS changes
  • Features: Preserves billing cycles; prevents double billing; deactivates old subscriptions safely; Stripe moves payment methods but MoveMRR recreates the subscriptions
  • Market: Indie SaaS founders selling their product who want MRR preserved through the transition

• MediaFast — $6,982 MRR (unverified — please verify independently)

  • Indie product. Site unreachable.

• tinylaunch — $5,793 MRR

  • From the site: "Launch Today, Get a Badge & 72+ DR Backlink"
  • Solution: Product launch platform with badge + DR-72+ dofollow backlink
  • Features: Daily launch submissions; top 3 launches get exclusive badges + a high-authority dofollow backlink; embedded badge must link back dofollow to tinylaunch.com landing page; trusted by 25,000+ users
  • Market: Indie SaaS founders, app developers, makers launching new products

• PulseMetrics — $5.2K MRR (unverified — please verify independently)

  • The .com is owned by a different company (data-science consultants). Indie PulseMetrics site not found.

• FormFlow — $3.4K MRR (unverified — please verify independently)

  • Indie product. Site unreachable.

• ShipFast — $3K MRR

  • From the site: "The NextJS boilerplate with all you need to build your SaaS, AI tool, or any other web app and make your first $$$ online"
  • Solution: Next.js boilerplate with the standard SaaS plumbing pre-wired
  • Features: JavaScript or TypeScript; /app or /pages router; payments (Stripe + Lemon Squeezy); MongoDB or Supabase; Google OAuth + magic-link auth; SEO + blog; Mailgun emails; UI components + animations; ChatGPT-generated Terms & Privacy; Discord community with 5,000+ makers; Leaderboards ranked by Stripe-verified revenue; $1,210 worth of partner discounts (Rewardful, There's An AI For That, daisyUI, DataFast, Typefully, MakerAdsGuide, SEO Course, etc.); pay once, build unlimited projects
  • Market: Indie hackers, solo founders, noob coders building SaaS / AI tools / micro-startups

• Twitter (Marc's account) — $4K MRR (creator revenue)

• LaunchKit — $2.1K MRR (unverified — please verify independently)

  • launchkit.com is currently a different company (Local SEO service). Indie LaunchKit site not found.

• PostOnce — $1,904 MRR

  • From the site: "You don't need ANOTHER app to schedule each post. Just post like you always do, we'll make sure it reaches all other platforms."
  • Solution: Cross-platform posting — write once, distribute to all social networks
  • Status: "Coming Soon" page (pre-launch)
  • Market: Creators, indie hackers, ghostwriters

• Lexo: 15min — $1,615 MRR (unverified — please verify independently)

  • Indie product. Site unreachable.

• DesignSnap — $1.3K MRR (unverified — please verify independently)

  • Indie product. Site unreachable.

• Indie Page — $845 MRR

  • From the site: "Indie.Page is a community resource for indie devs, collecting resources for publishing games successfully."
  • Solution: Wiki of indie-dev resources structured along the dev journey (funding, development, communities)
  • Market: Indie game and SaaS developers

• Twitter (anupamrjp's) — $850 MRR (creator revenue)

• TrendGap — $928 MRR

  • From the site: "Stop Guessing What to Build. Find Guaranteed Gaps." / "TrendGap uses AI to analyze 100,000+ app reviews weekly across G2, TrustPilot, App Store, Capterra and the Product Hunt"
  • Solution: AI market intelligence that scores niches by Pain Score
  • Features: Pain Score per idea (e.g., Shopify Returns shown as Pain Score 92); uncovers high-pain, low-competition niches before anyone else
  • Market: Aspiring indie hackers and SaaS founders looking for validated ideas

• TimeSkip — $624 MRR

  • From the site: "Chapters for YouTube videos in seconds, not hours!" / "Powered by AI"
  • Solution: AI YouTube chapter generator
  • Features: 30-second setup; one-click generation; copy-paste into video description; "Increase your video visibility by up to 220% with smart chapters"; featured on Product Hunt (#324)
  • Market: YouTubers who want better SEO / chapters without manual timestamps

• QuickAPI — $620 MRR

  • From the site: "Turn your assets into a micro-SaaS, no-code required" / "The easiest way to monetize your data or API"
  • Solution: Plug assets (CSV, API, Google Sheet, Zapier trigger, MySQL database) in and instantly let users subscribe
  • Market: Data owners and indie builders wanting to monetize an existing dataset or API without writing a SaaS

• ByeDispute — $222 MRR

  • From the site: "Don't let a dispute get you banned from Stripe" / "ByeDispute monitors fraudulent activity to prevent chargebacks from stolen credit cards, unusual payment activity, or even spammers."
  • Solution: Stripe chargeback protection
  • Features: 1-minute no-code setup; up to 80% fewer disputes; saves the $30 per-dispute fee
  • Market: Any SaaS / e-commerce merchant on Stripe worried about chargebacks

• InvoiceZap — $180 MRR (unverified — please verify independently)

  • Indie product. Site unreachable.

• SuperShrimp — $170 MRR

  • From the site: "Fix your posture" / "Turn your laptop into a posture coach that stops you from sitting like a shrimp."
  • Solution: Mac app that uses the laptop webcam as a posture coach
  • Features: 30-day money-back guarantee
  • Market: Developers and desk workers who slouch while coding

• TinyShots — $164 MRR (unverified — please verify independently)

  • Indie product. Site unreachable.

• MeditateNow — $145 MRR (unverified — please verify independently)

  • Indie product. Site unreachable.

• Zenvoice — $138 MRR

  • From the site: "Stop paying 0.4% for Stripe invoices"
  • Solution: Customers self-generate, edit, and download invoices (VAT, edits) via a shareable link, bypassing Stripe's invoice-generation fee
  • Features: 1-minute no-code setup; editable invoices (VAT, etc.); eliminates the 0.4% Stripe invoice fee
  • Market: Stripe-using freelancers and small businesses that issue a lot of invoices

• YouTube (Marc's) — $116 MRR (creator revenue)

• HabitsGarden — $114 MRR

  • From the site: "Beat procrastination with a gamified habit tracker" / "Turn your goals into quests to beat procrastination and boost your productivity!"
  • Solution: Gamified habit tracker — turns goals into quests
  • Market: Self-improvement consumers who quit regular habit apps

• LiFast — $96 MRR

  • Status: Domain for sale on DomainMarket for $4,888 — indie product appears defunct

• BrewTrack — $95 MRR

  • Status: Domain for sale on HugeDomains for $8,095 — indie product appears defunct

• WorkbookPDF — $77 MRR

  • From the site: "Language workbooks created just for you" / "Personalized to your topics. Illustrated exercises. Printable."
  • Solution: AI-personalized language workbooks (grammar / vocab) tailored to learner's level and interests
  • Features: Personalized to your topics; illustrated exercises; printable; 8,695 happy students
  • Market: Self-directed language learners (Spanish / English primary)

• MindStack — $61 MRR

  • Status: Domain now redirects to Inevia (manufacturing software) — indie product appears rebranded

• Side Letter — $310 MRR

  • From the site: Tech/business newsletter (Reid Hoffman article in the index)
  • Solution: Tech/business analysis newsletter
  • Market: Business readers, founders, tech professionals

• GrowthX.so — $500 MRR

  • From the site: "Grow on X with data, not guesswork" / "Your AI-powered X growth stack"
  • Solution: AI-powered X growth dashboard
  • Features: Draft tweets with engagement prediction; schedule them to fire at the second; see who unfollowed you; spy on what works for creators in your niche; all in one dashboard
  • Status: Private beta — 1,200 creators on the waitlist
  • Market: X creators, ghostwriters, indie builders

• RoleReady — $24 MRR

  • From the site: "Build confident Teams with Agentic AI role play" / "RoleReady helps your people move from knowledge to impact through experiential, last-mile coaching"
  • Solution: AI roleplay training platform for teams
  • Features: Agentic AI roleplay; experiential coaching; "last-mile" delivery from knowledge to on-the-job impact
  • Market: L&D / People Ops teams training customer-facing staff

• How2Rizz — $0 MRR

  • From the site: "Your AI Dating Wingman" / "AI-powered dating coach that helps you improve your game on Tinder, Bumble & beyond"
  • Solution: AI dating coach app
  • Features: Conversation starter suggestions; App Store + Google Play distribution
  • Market: Single people on dating apps

• PoopUp — $19 MRR

  • Status: Pivoted to a physical pet product — "The best poop scooper device for any consistency poop for any size dog"
  • Market: Dog owners

• TinyTab — $0 MRR

  • Status: Domain for sale on HugeDomains for $7,295 — indie product appears defunct

• RemoteOK — revenue not separately reported

  • From the site: "Remote Jobs in Programming, Design, Sales and more #OpenSalaries"
  • Solution: Remote-only job board
  • Features: Category filters (AI Jobs, Async jobs, Distributed team, Executive, Customer Support, Marketing, Finance, Engineer); premium candidate database (10,000+ reviews, 4.8/5); #OpenSalaries tags
  • Market: Remote job seekers (developers, designers, sales, execs) + companies hiring remote workers

• fly.pieter.com — revenue not separately reported

  • From the site: "A fun free-to-play MMO flight sim, 100% made with AI, without loading screens and GBs of updates every time you wanna play"
  • Solution: Browser-based MMO flight simulator
  • Features: Built with Cursor + Three.js; in-game startup ad placements (Stripe checkout for promoting startups in-game to 100,000+ people)
  • Market: Casual gamers, aviation enthusiasts

• Iconbuddy — revenue not separately reported

  • From the site: "Free SVG Icons — 300,000+ Open Source Icons"
  • Solution: Open-source icon library
  • Features: Searchable; first-party plugins for Figma, VS Code, Framer, WordPress, Chrome; bookmarks
  • Market: Web developers and product designers

• Maillayer — revenue not separately reported

  • From the site: "Mailchimp alternative, self-hosted and truly yours"
  • Solution: Self-hosted email marketing tool — buy once, deploy on your own server
  • Features: One-click install on Railway; send unlimited emails via Amazon SES, SendGrid, or Mailgun
  • Market: Indie hackers and small businesses wanting email marketing without monthly SaaS fees

• TypingMind — revenue not separately reported

  • From the site: "LLM Frontend Chat UI for AI models"
  • Solution: Premium chat UI for LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, local models)
  • Features: Model switching; prompt library; search; usage stats; buy-a-license model
  • Market: AI power users, prompt engineers, developers, researchers

• Bannerbear — revenue not separately reported

  • From the site: "API for Automated Image and Video Generation"
  • Solution: REST API + integrations for auto-generating social visuals, e-commerce banners, blog images, short videos from templates
  • Features: Official libraries in Ruby, Node, and PHP; integrations with Zapier, Airtable, Forms, and direct URLs; free trial without credit card
  • Market: Developers (via API), marketing teams, e-commerce stores, bloggers

• Hotelist — revenue not separately reported

  • From the site: "No pay-to-play, only hotels rated by AI" / "Hotels rated by AI (by @levelsio)"
  • Solution: AI-rated hotels — no pay-to-play model
  • Features: Stats dashboard; Awards section; "Request a review" form
  • Market: Travelers who distrust TripAdvisor's pay-to-play review ecosystem

• Pieter.com — revenue not separately reported

  • From the site: "Windows 3.11 Emulator — retro computer with dial-up internet by Pieter"
  • Solution: Browser-based Windows 3.11 emulator with dial-up-internet simulation
  • Features: Retro OS and apps in-browser; built by @levelsio + @bai0
  • Market: 90s-kids nostalgia audience, retro-computing hobbyists

What this list tells me

• Most products are tiny. $100–$500/mo is the norm. The $5K+ tier is rare.
• Many don't have public websites — or their domain has been parked for sale after the project shut down. Indie micro-SaaS doesn't need SEO; revenue comes from X + Product Hunt + Indie Hackers, and survival past year 2 is the exception.
• Several have already churned. TinyTab, BrewTrack, LiFast, MindStack — domain-for-sale or redirected. Indie micro-SaaS has high mortality.
• The patterns that survived: painkiller workflow tools (Zenvoice, ByeDispute, MoveMRR), AI wrappers with a specific niche (PhotoAI, Interior AI, How2Rizz, GPT Watermark Remover), launch / discovery platforms (TinyLaunch, TrendGap), communities + content + newsletter plays (levels.io blog, SideLetter).
• The patterns that didn't: undifferentiated AI wrappers, anything relying on a single platform (Twitter algorithm changes, App Store ranking shifts), low-engagement consumer apps.
• The biggest MRR is still on real, unglamorous tools — Zenvoice dodges Stripe fees, ByeDispute dodges chargebacks, MoveMRR migrates subscriptions. Boring and painkiller.