Pain Point #1: “I’m struggling to find data for bootstrapped companies that get acquired… the acquisition amount often doesn’t hit the headlines. Does anyone know where to reliably find bootstrapped exit data, actual sale amounts, industries, who acquired them, etc.?” (Post 6)

Opportunity: QuietExits — the first verified database of bootstrapped M&A. Scrape public registries (Delaware short-form filings, state UCC filings, UK Companies House, Irish CRO), public-buyer 8-Ks, acquirer earnings call footnotes, option plan filings, LinkedIn org changes, and broker marketplaces (Acquire, Flippa, Empire Flippers) to infer deal size bands. Layer in a bounty market: pay founders, lawyers, and brokers $200–$500 to anonymously submit verified ranges with redacted docs (LOIs, escrow disbursement statements), attested by their counsel. Sell searchable deal comps by revenue, margin, stack, channel, geography, and buyer type. Price: $3k/seat/year for angels/search funds; $10k/year for PE/strategics; $499/year founder plan.

First 10 Customers:
- Principals/Partners at micro-PE and search funds (1–10 deals/year)
- Corporate Development Managers at mid-market strategics (software roll-ups)
- Solo GPs and boutique VCs backing bootstrappers (pre-seed to seed)
- M&A brokers/advisors specializing in sub-$100M software exits
- Founders planning a sale in 6–24 months

MVP in 48 Hours:
- Typeform + Airtable backend + Webflow landing page with 100 seeded records scraped from public buyer filings and marketplaces (mark each with confidence level + band).
- Post a public “bounty board” (Google Form + Zapier) paying for verified submissions; first 20 bounties funded via Stripe.
- Ship 3 PDF “Deal Comp Packs” (e.g., “DevTools <$10M ARR,” “Shopify Apps,” “Legacy SaaS roll-ups”) as gated downloads for $199 to validate willingness to pay.

Justification:
- Demand: The exact quote shows a data desert for non-VC exits; this is repeated in practice because “VC-backed deals are ‘sexy news,’” while bootstrapped deals stay quiet.
- ROI: One better-priced offer on a $10M–$50M exit is worth 1–5% in avoided mispricing or fee negotiation — six to seven figures of value for a $3k–$10k subscription.
- Scalable: Data ops + scraping + bounties compound; every verified submission increases network effects. This becomes the default comp set for a growing class of bootstrapped sellers and buyers.
- Purple Cow/Controversial: Paying bounties for anonymized, counsel-attested deal bands is shocking in a secretive market. It breaks the “only VCs get data” moat and creates an unfair advantage for non-VC players right now, when private markets are opaque and capital is tight.

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Pain Point #2: “the time it takes to generate a video (currently could reach up to more than an hour)… trying to optimize AWS so it doesn’t sky rocket with the improvement in time it takes” (Post 28). Also: “For even a small change they charge in credits. They can stack fast.” (Post 3)

Opportunity: RenderRush — a drop-in AI video pipeline optimizer that cuts render time 50–80% and compute cost 30–60% in a week, guaranteed or you don’t pay. How: PDF pre-segmentation, extractive-first LLM summarization, prompt caching, TTS chunk de-duplication, batched inference with vLLM, quantized/distilled model routing, and a GPU meta-broker that arbitrages spot capacity across AWS/Runpod/Paperspace with automatic fallbacks. SDK plugs into existing queues (SQS/Kafka) and emits per-step metrics and failure retries. Pricing: $2,000 setup + 20% of verified compute savings for 90 days, then $0.01 per rendered minute + support SLA. Optional “Unlimited small change” plan for non-coders to avoid credit sprawl.

First 10 Customers:
- CTO/Head of Engineering at seed-stage AI video tools (doc-to-video, training, explainers) doing 500–10,000 renders/month
- Product/Engineering Lead at EdTech converting textbooks/PDFs to video lessons
- Founder at async onboarding/training platforms generating narrated screenflows at scale
- PM/Tech Lead at customer support platforms auto-generating video help docs
- AI media agencies running bulk UGC/video ad generation

MVP in 48 Hours:
- Spin up a benchmark harness (Colab + Runpod) that runs a standard doc-to-video pipeline across g4dn/g5/Runpod/Paperspace. Publish a live dashboard (Retool) showing time/cost deltas.
- Build a landing page with a 2-minute ROI calculator (upload your last month’s AWS bill + number of renders).
- Offer a “Free One-Week Compute Audit”: jump on Zoom, inspect their pipeline, manually implement caching/batching/spot routing on one path, and show before/after bills.
- Charge only if time-to-render drops 50%+ or compute $/minute drops 30%+.

Justification:
- Demand: Direct quotes show extreme latency (“more than an hour”) and cost anxiety (“optimize AWS so it doesn’t sky rocket” and “credits… stack fast”). This is a today-only pain driven by 2025 AI video demand + GPU volatility.
- ROI: Cutting a 60-minute render to 10–20 minutes reduces user churn and refunds; a 30–60% compute reduction on a $10k/month GPU bill is $3k–$6k saved immediately — month one payback.
- Scalable: The optimizer is horizontal (any pipeline with LLM + TTS + video). Once the SDK and broker exist, marginal customers cost little. $1M ARR requires ~80 customers at $1k MRR (savings share) or ~30 at $3k MRR.
- Purple Cow/Controversial: “Pay-from-savings” pricing + a GPU meta-broker that arbitrages spot markets gives you an unfair advantage. Most devs won’t build quantization + arbitrage + retry semantics quickly; you do it once and sell it everywhere.

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Pain Point #3: “I live in Türkiye and have a company in the UK. I need a payment processor that can integrate with Shopify… the Shopify payments I opened are getting banned directly… I also got banned from Stripe.” (Post 28)

Opportunity: Checkout Failover, Fast: 48‑Hour Payment Rescue for Shopify merchants banned by Stripe/Shopify Payments.
- What it does: Emergency concierge that (1) triages risk profile, (2) onboards you to 2–3 alternative PSPs that accept your vertical/geo (e.g., Nuvei, Bluesnap, PayOp, Rapyd, 2Checkout/Verifone, dLocal, Payoneer Checkout, regionals), (3) implements dispute-prevention workflows (clear post-purchase comms, OTP delivery confirmation, terms/legal updates, shipment tracking injection), and (4) sets a processor failover (primary/secondary) with real-time alerts.
- Why now: Deplatforming risk is higher for cross-border/dropshipping merchants; every day offline burns revenue and ad momentum. This is an emergency, not a “nice to have.”
- Pricing: $2,500 setup (expedite within 48h) + $399/mo for 90 days + 0.3% of processed volume during probation. Add-on: Stripe/Shopify reinstatement appeal package $1,200.

First 10 Customers:
- Shopify merchants registered in UK/EU/MENA selling cross-border (especially dropship/COD variants) now banned by Stripe/Shopify Payments
- DTC brands with elevated dispute ratios needing a second-chance processor
- Shopify development agencies needing a go-to rescue for clients
- Aggregators operating multi-store portfolios with processor risk

MVP in 48 Hours:
- Webflow page + crisis CTA (“Get back online in 48h”); Calendly triage
- Intake Google Form (vertical, AOV, geo, dispute ratios, fulfillment SLAs)
- Pre-negotiated contacts at 3–5 high-risk-friendly PSPs; manual merchant application submission
- Shopify setup checklist: add alternate payment app; transactional SMS via Twilio; add chargeback deflection app; update PDP/checkout policies; add post-purchase survey for QA
- Slack/Email alerting via Zapier when primary PSP faults; route to backup link or PSP

Justification:
- Demand: “Shopify payments… getting banned directly… I also got banned from Stripe.” (Post 28). That’s as urgent as it gets—store is dead in the water.
- ROI: A store doing $1,500/day recovers in 48 hours: your $2,500 fee pays back in <2 days. Dispute-prevention plus clear policies can cut chargebacks 20–40%, safeguarding accounts.
- Scalable: SOP-driven, partner-led model. Each rescue produces repeatable templates per vertical/geo. PSP referral rev-share compounds. 30 rescues/quarter ≈ $225k–$300k/yr before subscription/volume fees.
- Purple Cow/Controversial: You operate where mainstream PSPs say “no.” The “failover” promise and 48-hour SLA is the hook. It’s edgy (risk/compliance heavy), but massively valuable and time-bound to what’s happening now.