Hey builder 👋
Your time is limited, so each week, I break down one startup idea you can build in days, not months. Simple plan, real tools, fast launch.
In today’s newsletter:
A smart app to make company knowledge easy to access
A 7-day roadmap to launch it
Let’s break it down!
A smart, opinionated tool finder that filters thousands of marketing tools into a short, personalized list based on your tasks, budget, and current stack.
1. Pain First (5/5)
Small and mid-sized remote teams constantly waste time searching for info buried in Slack threads, Notion pages, or old Google Docs.
New hires often ask the same questions because knowledge is scattered, not searchable.
This pain is daily, measurable, and grows as teams scale.
2. Why Now (5/5)
Remote and hybrid work created fragmented communication, and the flood of tools made knowledge harder to retrieve.
AI retrieval models are finally good enough to understand natural language and summarize internal content accurately.
The cost of running these models has dropped, making AI-assisted knowledge search viable for small teams.
3. Market Shape (4/5)
The knowledge management software market is projected to hit $42B by 2032, growing at 18% per year.
Knowly targets the ~$3.5B slice serving SMBs and remote teams, which is growing fastest.
Even capturing 1% of that segment (~$35M/year) is meaningful.
Rising search interest in “knowledge management AI” (+58% YoY) shows accelerating demand.
4. Current Alternatives (4/5)
Notion AI – good for note creation, poor for cross-platform search.
Guru – powerful but heavy and built for large enterprises.
Slite and Almanac – lightweight, but lack deep integrations and AI tagging.
5. Flow Sketch (4/5)
Input: Connect Slack, Notion, and Google Drive.
What happens: AI parses and embeds content, auto-tags topics, and finds relationships.
Output: Users ask a question in chat; Knowly summarizes relevant snippets with source links and context
Simple setup, immediate value, and no need to migrate data.
6. Risk Analysis (3/5)
Privacy risk: Accessing company data may raise security concerns. Mitigate with clear data boundaries, encryption, and GDPR compliance.
Accuracy risk: Wrong or outdated answers may erode trust. Mitigate with “source verification” and feedback loops.
Distribution risk: Competing in a noisy productivity market. Focus on niche early adopters (remote ops teams, startups ≤100 users).
Integration risk: Sync issues across APIs. Start with stable ones (Slack, Notion) before adding more.
7. Acquisition Feasibility (5/5)
Early adopters are easy to reach:
Communities: r/Notion, r/Productivity, IndieHackers, Slack group “Remote Together.”
Tactics: Share demo videos, “before/after” onboarding stories, and quick wins from early users.
Direct outreach: DM founders and ops managers on LinkedIn who manage remote teams.
High engagement channels, fast feedback loops.
8. Future Potential (5/5)
Add integrations for Confluence, Teams, and HubSpot.
Create analytics dashboards showing which topics are most searched or outdated.
Offer “AI onboarding bots” that pre-answer FAQs for new hires.
Introduce team-level insights (“top recurring questions,” “knowledge gaps”).
Build a self-improving system that gets smarter as usage grows.
🔥 Potential: 4.4 / 5 - Excellent
A timely, sharp solution to a universal pain. Knowly hits the sweet spot between AI innovation and everyday team frustration, worth testing immediately.
Let’s build it step by step!
Day 1: Identify the Pain and the People
Start by listening, not building.
Join 2–3 online communities where remote teams hang out, like Indie Hackers or Remote Together. Ask, “What’s the hardest part about finding info inside your tools?”
Note the exact phrases people use. You’re mapping the real problem in their words.
By day’s end, write one clear line:
“Remote teams waste hours each week searching for answers hidden across Slack, Notion, and Docs.”
You now know who feels the pain and how they describe it.
✅ You’re one step closer. Tomorrow, we test if they care enough to click.
Day 2: Validate Demand Before Building
Before touching any API, prove demand.
Build a quick waitlist page in Framer or Typedream. Add a headline, a short description, and a simple signup form using Tally. Record a 20-second Loom pretending Knowly already exists.
Share the link in the same communities. DM 5–10 people who showed interest.
If you get 10+ signups or real replies like “When can I try this?” you’ve validated the idea.
✅ Proof beats perfection. Tomorrow, you’ll design the MVP.
Day 3: Outline the MVP
Keep it small.
In Notion, create sample company pages. Then use Make or n8n with GPT-4 to test a simple flow: someone types a question, AI finds and summarizes a relevant answer, and includes the Notion page link.
You don’t need full integrations yet—just a working mock that shows the magic moment.
✅ If one query returns one helpful answer, you’re ready to test. Tomorrow, we collect real feedback.
Day 4: Collect Feedback
Reach out to your first five signups.
Show them a short Loom demo or invite them to try the mock. Ask:
“Would this help your team?”
“What’s missing before you’d pay for it?”
Gather every response in Notion. Tag common themes like “accuracy,” “speed,” or “security.”
✅ Success is five honest reactions and clear notes on what to improve. Tomorrow, we polish it.
Day 5: Automate and Polish
Time to connect the dots.
Use Supabase to store snippets, OpenAI API for summaries, and Vercel to host a small Next.js app.
Add a chat-style input, make it respond instantly, and show “source: Notion link” for trust.
Don’t overbuild—just smooth the experience. Aim for speed and clarity.
✅ Now you have a working MVP v0.2 that feels real. Tomorrow, we test if people will pay.
Day 6: Monetize Early
Add a pricing test.
Use LemonSqueezy or Stripe Checkout to set up one simple plan: “Early Access – $10/month.”
Email your testers:
“We’re opening early access for 10 teams. Want in?”
Even one paid signup or strong pre-order signal means real validation.
✅ If money moves, the idea’s alive. Tomorrow, you launch.
Day 7: Launch and Measure
Time to go public.
Post on Product Hunt, Indie Hackers, and LinkedIn. Share the story of how you built Knowly in a week and the pain it solves.
Track clicks, signups, and questions people ask most. Use Beehiiv to start a small newsletter for updates.
✅ Congrats! you’ve built and launched a real AI product in seven days.
What to Do Next
Look at the data. Did people sign up, pay, or share it? What feedback came up most?
Refine your positioning, improve accuracy, or add one new integration.
Every sprint sharpens your product.
Whatever the outcome, you now have clarity, data, and momentum, and that’s how real products start
Hope today’s idea fired you up to build something new 🔥
Your feedback helps me make each issue better, reply and tell me what you liked (or didn’t). I read every message personally.
– Adrien