Niche Research First Pass

Niche Research — First Pass (Lifestyle SaaS Lens)

Goal

Evaluate whether a niche can become a $1–3M ARR lifestyle business run solo or with 1 partner.

Ideal characteristics:

• Simple product scope (v1 in 2–6 weeks)
• Short sales cycle ( 3,000 customers OR unbuildable scope

Include:

• Must-have signals to proceed
• 7-day validation plan

---

Output

Filename: Niche_FirstPass_.md

# Niche First Pass: 

## TL;DR Verdict

- **Verdict:** Pursue / Hold / Kill
- **Why:** (3 blunt bullets)

## The Wedge

(One sentence: sellable workflow + mandatory artifact + outcome)

## Customer Profile

| Role | Description |
|------|-------------|
| Paying customer | |
| Daily user | |
| Trigger moment | |

## Workflow Today (As-Is)

1. 
2. 
3. 

## Pain / Money Leak

- **Time waste:**
- **Errors/rejects:**
- **Compliance risk:**
- **Revenue leak:**

## Existing Solutions

### Direct Niche Tools
| Tool | Pricing | Notes |
|------|---------|-------|
| | | |

### Substitutes
- 

## Distribution (Must Be Specific)

- **List source:** (actual URL/database)
- **Channel candidate:**
- **Inbound keywords:** (with volume if known)
- **Integration hook:**
- **Distribution risk:**

## Founder Fit

- [ ] Natural access to buyers
- [ ] Would enjoy 50+ sales calls with this persona
- [ ] Would care about this market in 3 years
- [ ] No ethical/personal hesitations

*Fit score: Strong / Moderate / Weak / Unknown*

## Buildability

| Factor | Assessment |
|--------|------------|
| Core v1 timeline | 2–6 weeks / 6–12 weeks / 12+ weeks |
| Regulatory buffer needed | Yes / No |
| Jurisdiction sprawl | None / Moderate / Severe |
| Edge case density | Low / Medium / High |
| Support load estimate | < 5 hrs/wk / 5–15 hrs/wk / 15+ hrs/wk |

### MVP Scope

**Must-have:**
- 

**Nice-to-have:**
- 

**Explicit non-goals:**
- 

## Pricing

- **Recommended tiers:**
- **Expected ARPA:**
- **Why it's fair:**

## Revenue Quality

- **Contract structure:**
- **Payment behavior:**
- **Expansion path:**

## Market Size (Conservative)

- **Payers in target geography:**
- **Total US payers:**
- **Path to $1M ARR:** X customers × $Y ARPA
- **Path to $3M ARR:** X customers × $Y ARPA
- **Key assumption:**

## Defensibility

| Moat Type | Present? | Notes |
|-----------|----------|-------|
| Data/workflow lock-in | | |
| Relationship moat | | |
| Distribution exclusivity | | |
| Speed moat | | |

## Biggest Entry Risks

1. 
2. 
3. 

## Kill Criteria

- If we don't hear X in 10 calls → kill
- If pricing won't clear $Y → kill
- If compliance/portal makes it redundant → kill

## 7-Day Validation Plan

| Day | Activity | Success Signal |
|-----|----------|----------------|
| 1 | | |
| 2–3 | | |
| 4–5 | | |
| 6–7 | | |

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: kirillpolevoy
• Source: kirillpolevoy/claude-saas-eval-skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.