A custom furniture maker in rural Vermont gets a request for a dining table. He needs to quote: wood species ($400-2,000 depending on choice), dimensions, finish options, delivery ($0-500 based on distance), and installation. His current system: open Excel, manually calculate material costs, add labor hours at $65/hour, format it to look professional, export as PDF, email it. The whole process takes 45 minutes. If he sent 10 quotes per week, that's 30+ hours monthly on quoting alone.
Service businesses live and die by their estimates. Win rates depend on professional presentation and accurate pricing. But most small service businesses quote with either Word/Excel templates (slow and error-prone) or enterprise CPQ tools like PandaDoc (expensive at $19-49/user/month for per-user pricing). The middle market — contractors, custom manufacturers, consultants, agencies — needs line-item estimates with optional upgrades, quantity calculations, and professional presentation.
Jobber ($49-149/mo) offers quoting for field services but bundles it with scheduling and invoicing you might not need. Quotient ($25-75/mo) is close but feels dated. The opportunity is a modern line-item estimate builder at $15-29/mo: create reusable line items with formulas, build estimates with optional upgrade tiers, branded templates, one-click accept with e-signature, and automatic follow-up for unsigned estimates. Focus on the estimate itself, not the full business suite. Target trades, custom manufacturers, and consultants who send 5-20 estimates per month.
💰 Revenue Blueprint
Three-tier value ladder to monetize from day one
20 estimates/mo, line items with formulas, branded PDFs, email delivery
Unlimited estimates, e-signature, optional upgrades, auto follow-up, analytics
Team access, estimate templates, CRM integration, deposit collection, custom domain
📊 Market Evidence
The Market Gap
PandaDoc expensive ($19+/user/mo). Jobber bundles quoting with services you don't need. No focused, modern estimate builder at $15-29/mo for service businesses.
🏆 Competitor Landscape
How existing players stack up in this market
🛠️ Recommended Tech Stack
Suggested tools and technologies to build this idea
Score Breakdown
Good market signals with room for growth
Market (20%) + Revenue (20%) + Trend (15%) + Competition (15%) + Build (15%) + Pricing (15%)
🚀 Start Building
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Build a SaaS product called "Line-Item Estimate Builder". ## Product Overview Transparent estimates for trades in minutes ## Problem Transparent estimates for trades in minutes ## Solution Build Line-Item Estimate Builder ## Target Audience indie hackers, small businesses, and solopreneurs ## Tech Stack - Next.js 15 (App Router) with TypeScript - Tailwind CSS v4 for styling - Supabase for auth, database, and storage - Vercel for deployment - shadcn/ui for UI components - Framer Motion for animations ## MVP Features to Build 1. Landing page with clear value proposition 2. User authentication (sign up, sign in, forgot password) 3. Core product functionality based on the solution above 4. Dashboard for users to manage their data 5. Pricing page with at least 2 tiers (free + paid) 6. Basic settings/profile page ## Known Competitors PandaDoc, Proposify, HoneyBook, Jobber, Quotient ## Key Risks to Address Standard market entry risks ## Deployment 1. Set up Supabase project and configure environment variables 2. Deploy to Vercel with `npx vercel --prod` 3. Set up custom domain 4. Configure Supabase RLS policies for security ## Instructions Start by creating the project structure, then build the landing page first. Use server components where possible. Make it mobile-responsive from the start. Focus on getting the core value loop working before adding polish.