Pain Point #1: “RapidAPI: 20% cut, Net 60 days payout… At $100k ARR that's $20k/year in fees… Net 60 seems insane to me… If you're doing your own marketing anyway, you're basically paying 20% for a checkout page… The reputation lock-in thing - your reviews/ratings are stuck on that platform.” Opportunity: ExitRamp for APIs — a “one‑click” migration off API marketplaces that: - Bridges tokens so old marketplace keys keep working while buyers switch (drop‑in proxy that maps RapidAPI/Apify tokens to your new Stripe tokens) - Emails and in‑product notifies buyers with a signed, trackable switch link - Ports social proof via cryptographically signed review handoffs (buyer signs with domain/GitHub; we verify and publish on your new docs) - Instant payouts via Stripe Connect; optional chargeback insurance so buyers still feel “marketplace-safe” Pricing: 2.9% + $99/mo OR flat 1.5% + $299/mo for >$25k MRR First 10 Customers: - Indie API vendors doing $3k–$50k MRR on RapidAPI/Apify (scrapers, enrichment, AI inference, data feeds) - Heads of Product at data/API SaaS with 30–300 active subscribers currently paying via a marketplace - Growth leads at AI tooling companies selling endpoints (agents, embeddings, OCR) on marketplaces - CTOs at dev tool startups with marketplace‑heavy revenue who want instant payout and own the customer MVP in 48 Hours: - Webflow landing + Calendly + Stripe Connect onboarding - Typeform to collect marketplace link + API key format + docs URL - Simple Node proxy (Render/Heroku) that validates both old (marketplace) and new (Stripe) tokens and logs who hit what - Manual “done-for-you” migration: we draft customer emails, add a banner to their docs, set up Stripe billing + customer portal, and port testimonials by getting buyer‑signed attestations - Measure success by % of GMV moved and days-to-switch Justification: - Demand: The OP lists concrete pain: “20% cut, Net 60… paying 20% for a checkout page… reviews/ratings are stuck.” Multiple distinct frictions (cost, cash flow, lock‑in, reputation portability). - ROI: At $100k ARR on RapidAPI, they burn ~$20k/yr. ExitRamp at ~3% + $99/mo ≈ $4.2k/yr; net >$15k/yr saved plus 60 days of cash-flow recovered. For $1M ARR, savings are ~>$160k/yr. - Scalable: Repeatable playbook (token bridge + comms + Stripe). Thousands of marketplace sellers; low-touch after migration. $1M ARR at ~800 customers on $99/mo + small take rate. - Purple Cow/Controversial: We explicitly help vendors disintermediate marketplaces and “port” social proof with signed attestations. It’s bold, a little spicy, and directly tackles lock‑in—exactly what sellers want but platforms resist. --- Pain Point #2: “From what I can see, Amazon will do just about anything unscrupulous if it means a) protecting their bottom line, and b) keeping the customer happy at the third-party sellers expense...” “[Amazon] refunded me an additional $125… from 2 purchases I had made almost 2 months ago from two different third-party FBA sellers… These third-party sellers had nothing to do with the Cuisinart fiasco.” “I would NEVER entrust my finances in the direct hands of Amazon warehouses for FBA.” (Source: Post 35) Opportunity: Concession Clawback for FBA — a contingency-fee “seller defense” that audits Amazon’s concessions, cross-order refunds, lost inventory, and “refund at first scan” leakage, then files and pursues recovery claims for you. Unbundled from generic FBA reimbursement services, laser-focused on the new/refined practices sellers are complaining about this holiday season. - Pricing: 15–25% of recovered funds, $0 retainer. Optional “always-on” monitoring at $149/month + 10% bounty. First 10 Customers: - Head of Marketplace Ops at 7–9 figure Amazon brands (Apparel, Home & Kitchen, Consumer Electronics) - CFO/Controller at Amazon Aggregators/roll-ups with 50–500 SKUs - FP&A lead at DTC brands doing FBA for Q4 surge - Owners of 3P FBA stores with >$1M annual GMV and high return volume MVP in 48 Hours: - Create a landing page with a clear promise: “We recover Amazon concession leakage you didn’t know existed — or you pay $0.” - Intake via Typeform: request 90 days of Settlement, Returns & Concessions CSV exports + case logs (instructions + Loom). - Parse with Python/Airtable/BigQuery to pattern-match: a) concessions applied to unrelated orders, b) “refund at first scan” not reconciling to inventory, c) mis-graded returns (sellable vs. unsellable), d) cross-account refund offsets. - Deliver a one-page Recovery Report (with line-item evidence) + a templated escalation pack (cases pre-drafted). - File a first batch of cases manually; invoice only on dollars actually credited. Justification: - Demand: The thread details a current-season (Cyber Weekend) case where Amazon offsets concessions against unrelated FBA sellers: “This third-party seller hence takes the hit through no fault of their own.” This is exactly the kind of “hidden leakage” sellers rant about but struggle to prove consistently. - ROI: Typical FBA reimbursement audits return 0.5–3% of sales. On $5M GMV, that’s $25k–$150k/year; even one “bad week” of concessions can mean five figures. Your contingency-only model makes the ROI obvious on Day 1. - Scalable: Data ingestion + rule-based anomaly detection + playbooked case filing scales across thousands of SKUs and sellers. Add read-only API access later; expand to Walmart/Target marketplaces using the same engine. - Purple Cow/Controversial: You’re openly taking on Amazon’s least-transparent practices during peak returns season, and charging only on results. Most “reimbursement” players don’t target concession cross-charges specifically — you do. --- Pain Point #3: “If a car dealership run ads and calls leads as soon as they opt-in with an AI voice bot equipped with this ‘AI brain’, that would definitely lead to an increase in car sales… an extra $10,000 / month for a small car dealership… It provided even better results than both Gemini 3 and gpt 5.1!” (Post 3) Opportunity: “AI Brain-in-a-Box” for inventory businesses (auto, RV, marine, furniture). A model-agnostic RAG appliance that ingests live inventory, answers pricing/availability/comparisons, and runs a speed-to-lead voicebot that books appointments within 30 seconds of a form fill. Outcome-priced and optimized on open-source 120B models where they outperform. - Pricing: $1k setup + $25 per qualified booked call or 5% of attributable uplift. First 10 Customers: - Dealer Principals/Marketing Directors at independent car dealerships with 50–300 units. - GMs at multi-rooftop auto groups that run paid leads and need faster follow-up. - Sales managers at RV/boat dealerships and furniture retailers with 500+ SKUs. - Real estate brokerage ISAs wanting instant AI follow-up on listing inquiries. MVP in 48 Hours: - Clone a dealership site inventory into a simple vector store (manual CSV ingest). Use an open-source LLM via API (e.g., Together/Fireworks). Build a demo chat + Twilio voice flow that answers “Do you have any 2021 Civics under $18k?” and books an appointment to a Google Calendar. - Webflow landing page + Loom demo. Offer a 14-day pilot on their real inventory; you or a VA monitor calls and escalate to a human when needed. Justification: - Demand: Dealers live/die by speed to lead, yet “AI hype” makes model choice confusing. The OP already benchmarked and claims $10k/month uplift at small stores. - ROI: If average front-end gross per unit is ~$2k, five incremental sales/month = $10k gross. Price at $1k setup + $25 per qualified booked call or 5% of attributable uplift. Clear payback. - Scalable: Same stack repurposes across inventory verticals. Ingest new feeds, templatize call flows, and sell via marketing agencies already serving dealers. - Purple Cow/Controversial: You explicitly don’t chase the “latest model”—you A/B models and deploy the cheapest, fastest one that wins in-field (including open-source 120B). Outcome-pricing with rev-share is rare and gutsy in this niche.