Pain Point #1: “founder calls me: ‘our aws bill hit $35k this month and we only have 3k users. is this normal?’ … last week i audited a b2b saas doing $2M arr… aws bill was $52k/month… fixed everything in 4 days… new monthly bill: $11k… they saved $41k PER MONTH” (Post 27)

Opportunity: RunwayGuard — a 72-hour “success-fee only” cloud cost cut for startups. Read-only IAM audit in 2 hours, then shadow-mode recommendations, then one-click, reversible changes to storage tiers, autoscaling, logging retention, and query/index fixes. Contract guarantees: 30%+ savings in 30 days or you pay $0. Pricing: bill 25% of first 6 months of verified savings; $0 if no savings.

First 10 Customers:
- CFO/Head of Finance at seed–Series B B2B SaaS (AWS spend > $20k/month)
- VP Engineering/Head of Platform at AI tooling companies with GPU/EC2 sprawl (10–200 employees)
- CTOs at devtools and data startups with 1–5k MAUs but ballooning infra
- FinOps/RevOps leads at marketplace/consumer apps with high S3/Data Transfer/CloudWatch line items

MVP in 48 Hours:
- Webflow landing page + Calendly
- Generate a CloudFormation snippet for a ReadOnlyAccess IAM role; founders paste and share ARN
- Pull Cost Explorer + Trusted Advisor + top 20 resource inventories; record a Loom with a savings plan
- Execute optimizations manually behind an “automated-looking” dashboard (Airtable + Notion + email change approvals)
- Bill 25% of first 6 months of verified savings (Stripe); $0 if no savings

Justification (infer this in detail):
- Demand: Multiple raw pain signals in Post 27: “average overspend: 4–7x,” “lambda called 40M times/day,” “14TB of logs from 2019… saved $31k/month just on logs.” These are widespread, repeatable issues.
- ROI: Typical case from the quote: $41k/month saved. On a 25% success fee for 6 months, customer still nets $184.5k cash savings in 6 months and immediate runway extension.
- Scalable: Standardized playbooks (storage tiering, autoscaling, logging retention, indexing) + read-only-to-approved-change workflow makes this repeatable across hundreds of accounts. Post-optimization monitoring becomes low-touch MRR (e.g., $499–$2,499/month).
- Purple Cow/Controversial: “Savings or $0” is an aggressive offer in a climate where burn reduction is existential (Post 8). The reversible, change-set approach removes the typical “we’re afraid to touch prod” blocker, making this a true 3AM-pain killer.

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Pain Point #2: “I’m realizing this might be a legal minefield… With Connect Express or Custom I could be on the hook for fraud, chargebacks, AML/KYC compliance etc… Ideally I want something where I never actually hold the funds/just take a small fee.” (Post 21)

Opportunity: Donor-of-Record API for fundraising/gifting apps — a turnkey, white‑label “Donor-of-Record” and compliance layer you drop into any “GoFundMe‑like” or peer‑to‑peer payout app. We own KYC/AML, fraud/chargeback liability, tax receipts, and disbursements (via a regulated partner). You never touch funds; you just embed our widget, set your platform fee, and go live in 24 hours. Think “Stripe Connect for donations/gifting” but with full compliance custody and instant brandable onboarding.

First 10 Customers:
- Founder/PM of new “help-a-friend”/gifting apps and event-based crowdfunding tools
- Product Lead at community platforms adding peer-to-peer tipping/donations (marketplaces, creator tools)
- CTO at niche fundraising SaaS (PTA, church, booster clubs, local sports)
- Ops lead at university/club fundraising portals spinning up vertical microsites
- Builders of neighborhood/Nextdoor-style cause pages who need to avoid money transmission risk

MVP in 48 Hours:
- Webflow landing + Loom demo of an embeddable checkout (Stripe Connect Standard accounts to start) with platform fee on each donation
- Use Stripe-hosted onboarding (branded) + Plaid for recipient verification; publish clear terms that funds are processed by our regulated partner and we issue receipts
- Calendly for onboarding; behind the scenes, you manually approve recipients, reconcile payouts in Airtable, and handle chargeback responses using Stripe Radar + basic KYB

Justification:
- Demand: “legal minefield” + “on the hook for fraud, chargebacks, AML/KYC” + “never actually hold the funds/just take a small fee” (Post 21) — this is a repeated blocker for indie founders launching donation/marketplace flows.
- ROI: Ship compliant rails in days vs. months of legal + engineering. Avoid $25k–$150k legal setup and months of risk modeling; 2–3% platform fee on day 1 > $0 revenue while “figuring out compliance.”
- Scalable: Horizontal to countless verticals (gifting, tipping, school/team fundraisers, memorial funds). Low marginal cost once compliance/risk ops are in place; pure volume processing to $1M+ quickly.
- Purple Cow/Controversial: We become Donor-of-Record and take risk the app won’t touch. Most payment tools stop at “you handle compliance.” We flip it: “We own it; you grow.” That’s rare and defensible.

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Pain Point #3: “We tried going with Razorpay and PhonePe, but they said that this domain comes in their restricted zone… they said they can't give us their payment gateway… We are now kind of stuck with the release” (Post 21, India, anonymous dating app)

Opportunity: GreyPay India — payments orchestration + compliance wrapper for “restricted-category” consumer apps (dating/anonymous social, adult wellness-lite, pseudonymous chat). We underwrite your flows, implement age/KYC gating and content-moderation attestations, restructure checkout to compliant MCCs, and route to PSPs/acquirers comfortable with the category. Fallback rails: UPI intent/pay links, PPI wallet top-ups via vouchers, Play/App Store billing hybrid. Go live in 14 days or full refund. Pricing: $3,000 setup + 1.5–2.0% volume-based fee for 6 months, or $5,000 “Approval or Refund” engagement.

First 10 Customers:
- Head of Product at India-based dating/anonymous social apps (pre- or post-launch) needing in-app microtransactions
- Founders/CXOs at community/chat apps flagged by mainstream gateways for “restricted” MCCs
- GMs at adult wellness, astrology, and creator community apps facing PSP denials
- PMs at gaming/social apps needing hybrid IAP + off-platform rails without policy violations

MVP in 48 Hours:
- Notion-based “denial-to-approval” checklist (KYC/age-gate, ToS, moderation policies, MCC mapping, refund/chargeback terms)
- Shortlist 3–5 PSPs/acquirers that underwrite dating/social, plus UPI/pay-link providers (manual BD outreach + warm intros)
- Build a Webflow page + Calendly; offer a flat-fee “Get Approved” package
- Implement a manual-looking orchestration: start with payment links/UPI QR + voucher top-ups while PSP MID is underwritten
- If mobile app: wire Play/App Store billing for subscriptions; route one-offs via UPI links

Justification:
- Demand: “stuck with the release” due to PSP denials (Post 21) is existential. Post 15 asks what makes merchants choose a PSP beyond fees — here the answer is “will they even underwrite our category?”
- ROI: Launch revenue unlocked immediately vs. product sitting idle. For a dating app projecting ₹10–20L/month GMV, capturing even month 1–2 unlocks ₹20–40L in cash flow that was otherwise zero.
- Scalable: Repeatable compliance pack, templated PSP application data, and cultivated relationships with risk teams create throughput. Expand into additional gray-verticals (tickets/resale, creator platforms, tipping) and geos (SEA, LATAM).
- Purple Cow/Controversial: Many PSPs avoid these categories; we become the “category underwriter” and policy translator. It’s controversial but timely given PSP tightening and RBI scrutiny — the edge is knowing who will say yes, under what attested controls, and implementing them fast.