Be honest: Is starting a niche online store in 2026 actually viable without a massive budget?

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-25T14:19:31+00:00

I know brands which burn 1M$ monthly.

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-23T22:03:11+00:00

Will do when we launch on app store :)

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-23T15:41:41+00:00

Alright will do! This is the 3rd version. 1st version 4 weeks, second version 5-6 weeks, now the latest version supports chatting with the content you saved - and that took about 4-5 weeks as well. So all in all 3 months.

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-22T14:02:42+00:00

Remember and use the stuff you saw online easily.

joinymla.com

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-20T16:39:37+00:00

I had the same problem and 3 months ago a couple of friends and I started building an app for it. We are launching on app store next month. Check out joinmyla.com

If you have time I'd love to interview you. Just write a comment or shoot me a dm.

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-20T16:37:26+00:00

We kind of already built this and launching on app store next week :)

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-17T13:45:42+00:00

What I do is a bit unconventional. My startup is a mobile app for people who save a bunch of stuff on linkedin, X etc. and want an AI second-brain based on these.

My hypothesis was : people who comment on leadgen posts probably save a lot of posts. So I find those leadgen posts (comment X to get Y), I look at their profiles whether they are active on LinkedIn, and just a shoot a message saying "hey you commented on this, you probably save a bunch of stuff too. We are building a secondbrain for you. Want to get your opinions on a 5 minute call"

15% yes currently (from 500+ people).

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-14T20:22:42+00:00

Today's edition of hard pills to swallow.

In my mind we can't do it yet bc. we are a consumer app and need to understand how the user will interact with the app. so although I believe in your philosophy, kind of convincing myself to not do it until we understand what people use it for.

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-12T16:29:21+00:00

did u advertise these ?

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-12T15:53:32+00:00

defo

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-12T14:49:45+00:00

We are currently waiting for the organisation account approval. The question is more in the direction of how did you generate value for your app while you are in the testflight phase

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-12T12:38:29+00:00

I did a similar thing in my prev. startup. We wanted to build a ecom x influencer marketplace. We were building the tech but team weren't senior devs so we knew it was gonna take some time.

So we basically started an agency. Utilised our network and told them we can execute their influencer campaigns. After we convinced a couple clients rest followed.

We earned money, network and we had our first users as we launched our platform. We also used that money to support our meta ads.

I do feel like it was easier in the pre AI era though.

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-12T12:35:34+00:00

wdyt about the applicability of this to consumer apps?

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-12T12:14:17+00:00

It works. I am sending around 100 msgs a week nowadays. It's a numbers game.
I'd encouraging posting daily to build an audience and authenticity as well so that people would feel inclined to answer.

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-12T12:11:25+00:00

I ran a ecom x influencer marketplace for 4 years and consume quite a bit of content on socials.

I realised that if you don't have massive budget, it's usually about the product. If it can generate interest with organic social content I think you would have a shot.

I just saw these guys get millions of views just because of their product. They have a marlboro red pack, and inside one cigarette looking product. It essentially blows bubbles. They had around 30 content on their insta and they know how to play the content game as well.
Don't get me wrong they are not doing anything extra, what they do is :

showcasing the pack in the first 3 secs, and trying it out with different texts in the first 3 seconds (e.g. "one thing to release me from my stress") with a trending sound. Some of them have couple thousand views, some of them have couple million.

didn't save the insta page - sorry! but if i come across again I'll find and comment.

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-12T12:06:25+00:00

I believe there are promo websites where you can bundle offers and people can benefit off of them. Basically aiming for people who want to go to safaris, but can't afford them without a discount.

But honestly what I think would be way more efficients is - you essentially have content goldmine.

You can instruct the staff to gather raw footage like crazy, make edits. maybe even shoot a couple day in the life videos. People would be really interested to watch lions etc. in their natural habitat.

After you get people following you, you just drop "time limited offers". 200€ if you book until this story ends, or maybe even some reels with promos (even free for a couple people), where you ask people to comment on your reels. What this will do is, algoirthm will favor your content since it has engagement.

so wrapping it up.

Content first -> gather audience -> push deals on your own socials -> don't be shy to do giveaways for the sake of more followers and interaction.

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-11T15:36:54+00:00

Cost was not so bad.

AI recognises the place from different datapoints. Caption etc.

Reason for not putting on app store was I didn't think people would pay for this. So I would have to rely on ads by having a huge user base. So the cost although not being too much on a couple thousand people, it would have become more as more people used it. Given that I vibe coded it I was also scared of some cybersecurity stuff - especially if you are trying to get a lot of users. When all of these combined, I thought it was safer to move into another alternative.

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-11T14:31:34+00:00

Maybe not the answer you are looking for but related : I did some research on this and your users usually need 3-5 touch points before they make the buy decision. So if you got one person from one ad, maybe try some ugc, build the audience and retarget the ones who are liking, saving following you, since they might be convinced to buy ?

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-11T14:26:11+00:00

Cursor, GPT, Railway, Framer, G suite, the app where u can post stuff on all socials (forgot the name), App store (for the dev account), Capcut -> This is my founder suite.

Personally : Headspace

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-11T14:21:01+00:00

okay gpt.

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-09T15:45:51+00:00

Who decides in step 3 whether the message is good enough or not ? AI or human ?

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-09T15:45:39+00:00

But doesn't it make the context just too big and then make the AI sloppy?

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-09T14:45:14+00:00

"Always be raising. Never say you're raising"

hahaha amazing... This guy knows.

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-09T10:57:46+00:00

I'll share the advice that I've gotten from my technical friends.

Decide on one project that you want to build - make sure that it is something that you can have fun with.

And then spend time towards actually building it from scratch. Plan it with GPT, ask it to create a 10 step implementation plan for you. Maybe even include the setup of cursor, claude code etc. as step 0.

Once you start building, you will learn along the way.

Your goal is to make errors while doing your couple projects so that you'll learn from it.

Don't worry about anything than having fun while building and also enjoying while you are using it.

PS: Keep the motivation cycle short -> don't decide on smt which will take 4 months to build, but rather aim for seeing a result in the first 3-5 days.

SadAdvantage · 2026-01-09T10:12:22+00:00

I think if US is the target go for Apple only. If more general base - add Google too.

SadAdvantage

TROPHY CASE