NotCode Idea #6: A $10K MRR SaaS For Beekeepers 🐝🍯
There's a real buzz about this one!
Welcome to the sixth edition of NotCode Ideas! 🚀 Your source for groundbreaking, profitable ideas that can be built entirely using no-code tools.
This edition delves into an opportunity within the niche but highly profitable world of beekeeping.
Let’s dive in! 👇
🤔 The Problem
There are over 615,000 beekeepers worldwide. It’s a massively overlooked market.
It’s also an exceptionally challenging profession. Beekeepers must regularly track the hive’s health, monitor honey production, and ensure optimal bee conditions.
Many Beekeepers deploy SaaS solutions to help them in this process.
There are very few competitors in this space, but the main one is a solution called apiarybook, which is a platform with very basic functionality (and horrible UI).
Here’s the mind-blowing thing:
They have over 25,000 paying customers.
Their subscription plans range from €6.66 ($7) to €8.33 ($8.75) per user, per month. This means they are generating a Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) of between $160K and $208K 🤯
💡 The Solution
There’s a huge opportunity to bring a no-code-based Beehive management software to market. That will compete with Apiarybook and steal some of their customers.
❓Why No-Code?
A no-code solution would have the following advantages in this market.
Lower costs: No-code tools have lower running costs than coded platforms. Mainly because you don't need to hire a team of software developers to build and maintain the platform, this means you can offer more competitive prices and generate greater profits with fewer customers.
Faster development: No-code allows you to build features 5 to 10 times faster than traditional coding. This means you can respond quickly to customer feedback and bring new features to market before your competitors, giving you a competitive advantage.
👨💻 MVP Features
Because this idea is already validated, we’d recommend building a more comprehensive feature set into the MVP. This will allow you to compete with Apiarybook and tempt more users to join your platform.
Here are the features we’d recommend of the initial version:
Create Apiary: By providing a name & location.
Create Hives: Add a hive to an apiary by providing the hives’ type, weight and other relevant details.
Health Monitoring: Record and track key hive health metrics such as age, weight and queen details.
Manage Feeding Schedule: Create and manage the hive’s feeding schedule, including details such as type of food, feeding time and amount.
Track Environmental Conditions: Record and track environmental conditions to ensure they are optimal for the bees.
Track Honey Production: Record and track the quality and quantity of the honey produced.
Add a To-Do List: Organize and prioritise daily tasks, ensuring key apiary management activities are scheduled and executed.
Alerts & Notifications: Receive alerts for upcoming/overdue tasks and any issues detected.
⚒️ Tools
To bring this idea to life using all no-code tools, we recommend:
Bubble or FlutterFlow: For creating the application UI, logic and workflows.
SendGrid: To send email notifications to users.
Stripe: To collect subscription payments.
⏳ Development Time
As this is already a validated product, there are a few more features than your standard MVP.
However, a dedicated no-coder could bring this product to market in 8-10 weeks.
💵 Revenue Model
We’d recommend aligning your pricing structure to Apiarybook.
Implement a freemium model where users can create one Apiary with up to 9 hives and force them to upgrade to the premium plan if they wish to create more.
To entice as many users as possible to upgrade, offer a discounted annual premium plan during the sign-up process.
To gain your initial customers, it may be wise to offer lower prices than Apiarybook. We’d recommend a subscription price of $5 per user, per month (you can always raise your prices later)
If you are able to capture just 5% of Apiarybook's market share, you could earn monthly recurring revenues (MRR) between $8,000 and $10,500.
💰 Exit Plan
There will be no shortage of buyers for a niche SaaS with a solid user base and consistent revenues.
You’d be looking at an acquisition price of between $600k to $800k.
📈 Marketing Strategy
Follow the following strategies to obtain your first users.
Influencer marketing: Reach out to TikTok influencers in the Beekeeping niche and pay them to promote the platform, such @missbeehaven123, @bowserbee or @jarhoneyofficial
Cold outreach: Use bbka (for those of you in the UK), or beeculture (for those of you in the US) to find Beekeepers in your local area and reach out to them directly
Sponsorships: Sponsor popular Beekeeping events and websites such as Pollinator Week, The National Honey Show or The British Beekeeping Show
✨ Ready To Disrupt the Market?
Notcode is a market-leading no-code development agency that specialises in building apps such as this one.
Book a call with us today to see how we can bring your app idea to life.
Thank you for being part of NotCode Ideas. Stay tuned for more exhilarating ideas in the next edition!