Pain Point #1: “It will be triggered by a research report that confirms minimal ROI for corporate users beyond initial low hanging fruit…” + “a lot of tooling, and a lot of hype… not sure if this is actually doing more good than harm.” + “in the top 1200 ai companies only ~2% is making money”

Opportunity: The AI Cost-to-Value Gatekeeper (a reverse-proxy “kill switch” for LLM spend)
- A control plane that sits between your company and all LLM providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Vertex, Bedrock). It attributes every AI call to a business outcome (tickets deflected, leads created, cycle time reduced), auto-switches to cheaper models when quality holds, and hard-stops any workflow that can’t prove ROI in 14 days. Ships board-ready ROI reports monthly. “No ROI, no run.”

First 10 Customers:
- CFO/Head of Finance at mid-market B2B SaaS (100–1000 employees) spending >$25k/mo on AI/Cloud
- VP Engineering / Head of Data at Series B–D companies running multiple internal AI pilots
- Director of Customer Support at e-commerce/fintech using LLMs for deflection/chat
- Procurement/FinOps Lead at cloud-heavy startups managing LLM bills
- Product Ops at AI tool vendors who must prove ROI to enterprise pilots (white-label)

MVP in 48 Hours:
- Stand up a reverse proxy (Kong/Nginx + Lua or FastAPI middleware) that logs: model, tokens, cost, prompt hash, team/app ID.
- Connect 2–3 systems for outcome signals: Zendesk (deflections), HubSpot (meetings/opps), Jira (cycle time), GitHub (PR cycle time).
- Map calls → workflows → outcome proxies with a simple rules table in Airtable. Show a Looker Studio dashboard with cost per outcome.
- Manual “kill rules” first: if a workflow shows <$X outcome/$Y cost after N days, block calls and notify owner. Offer a 14-day “we cut 30% of your AI bill or you don’t pay” pilot.

Justification:
- Demand: 
  - “minimal ROI for corporate users beyond initial low hanging fruit” (Post 2)
  - “a lot of tooling… not sure if this is actually doing more good than harm” (Post 7)
  - “in the top 1200 ai companies only ~2% is making money” (Post 27)
- ROI: Typical first-month savings 30–60% on LLM spend via model right-sizing + killing zombie workflows; plus faster cycle times measured in Jira/CSAT. Charge: $2k setup + 2–5% of savings + $25/user/month for governance.
- Scalable: Proxy + integrations are multi-tenant; new connectors = new verticals. Low services overhead after initial setup. $1M ARR at ~2,000 governed seats or ~$1M/mo AI spend managed with 2–3% take.
- Purple Cow/Controversial: You’re literally turning off internal AI projects that can’t justify themselves. It’s the “ad spend attribution” playbook ported to LLMs—provably useful and politically spicy inside orgs.

---

Pain Point #2: “And here we are, still manually pulling screenshots and FedEx receipts like it’s 2010. The fraudsters have automated their scams. We’ve got to automate the defense. If your dispute process still needs someone to ‘gather evidence’ you’re already losing time and money.”

Opportunity: Autonomous chargeback defense layer that assembles and submits issuer-specific evidence packs in minutes (not days), tuned per network/issuer rules. It pulls proof from Shopify/Stripe/PayPal + carriers + CRM + inbox, generates affidavit-style narratives, and auto-files within the dispute portal—then learns which evidence weights win at each bank and adapts. “First-party friendly fraud” mode flags risky SKUs/orders pre-charge and triggers extra verification at checkout.

First 10 Customers:
- VP/Head of eCommerce at DTC brands doing $1M–$50M GMV on Shopify/BigCommerce
- Director of Finance/Controller at subscription box companies (card-not-present, >3% disputes)
- Payments/Risk Lead at marketplaces and on-demand delivery apps
- RevOps/Payments Ops Manager at SaaS with high trial-to-paid chargebacks
- COO at high-risk verticals (supplements, digital goods, ticketing)

MVP in 48 Hours:
- Webflow landing page with Stripe/Shopify/PayPal logos + Calendly
- Zapier/Make pipes: Stripe/Shopify webhooks + Gmail + Shippo/UPS APIs into Airtable/Notion as “evidence locker”
- Auto-generate dispute PDFs via Google Docs templates (order details, delivery proof, IP/device, comms)
- Manually submit via Stripe/Shopify first; track win rate in Airtable; email weekly ROI report to pilot users

Justification:
- Demand: Direct, urgent Reddit proof of pain and timeliness: “Global chargeback fraud ring is way bigger than anyone thought… The fraudsters have automated their scams… If your dispute process still needs someone to ‘gather evidence’ you’re already losing time and money.”
- ROI: If a merchant has 50 disputes/month at $120 AOV, each lost dispute costs ~$180–$240 after fees/logistics. Improving win rate from 20% to 60% saves ~20–40 disputes/month = $3.6k–$9.6k/mo + 20–40 hrs team time. Pricing at $299–$999/mo is a no-brainer.
- Scalable: Pure software + connectors; issuer/bank evidence weight model improves across all merchants (network effect). No heavy services; add self-serve onboarding and async support. Easy path to $1M ARR with 1,000 SMBs at ~$99–$149 and 200 mid-market at $499–$1,499.
- Purple Cow/Controversial: “AIO for payments”—adapts evidence to each issuer’s hidden playbook; pre-chargeback verification nudges (small friction) to deter first-party fraud. Contrarian stance: don’t fight chargebacks with more people—beat them with issuer-specific machine-weighted packets.

---

Pain Point #3: “So basically the first time anyone reached out all year was two days after the cancellation window closed.” … “Are ‘gotcha renewals’ just normal now, or is this a trash way to run a business?”

Opportunity: CancelGuard for SMBs (auto-renewal watchdog + cancellation autopilot)
A co-pilot that scans inbox/contracts, extracts renewal terms, and automatically triggers compliant cancellations or renegotiations before the window closes. Sends certified notices, tracks vendor responses, and documents audit trails. Price: $49–$99/month + 20% of savings recovered (or $250 flat per successful cancellation).

First 10 Customers:
- Operations/Finance Managers at agencies (5–100 ppl) with 20–100 SaaS tools (PR, analytics, ESPs)
- Controllers at multi-location restaurants/retail (POS, loyalty, scheduling contracts)
- Admins at law/accounting firms managing research/directory renewals
- Founders with >$2k/month SaaS spend and no vendor calendar discipline

MVP in 48 Hours:
- Gmail read-only + Google Drive folder watch for contracts
- LLM to parse PDFs/emails for vendor, term, auto-renew clause, notice method, deadline, address
- Google Calendar reminders + pre-filled cancel emails; use a certified mail API (PostalMethods/Lob) for physical notices
- Lightweight dashboard (Glide/Softr) to show upcoming renewals and one-click “Cancel/Negotiate” (you do outreach manually first)

Justification:
- Demand: Two separate posts venting about being trapped by “gotcha renewals.” This trend is rising with aggressive vendor tactics.
- ROI: If you prevent/renegotiate just one $5,000 annual contract or avoid one quarter of an unwanted $900/mo tool, you 10–50x the monthly fee. Immediate, provable cash savings.
- Scalable: Every SMB has a growing SaaS/vendor stack. Add-ons: bulk contract import, vendor price-benchmarking, state-specific auto-renew compliance letters, enterprise seat audits. Easy to hit $1M ARR with 2,000–5,000 accounts + success fees.
- Purple Cow/Controversial: “We cancel for you—certified and auditable.” It exploits the 2024–2025 regulatory moment (auto-renew/junk-fee scrutiny). Vendors won’t love you; customers will. It’s a rare painkiller in a sea of “spend more on software.”