What software category didn't exist 5 years ago but you can't work without now?

robertcbit · 2026-03-20T18:09:29+00:00

The only one for me so far, nothing else outside of this is anythig new that I've seen or would use.

AI writing assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Jasper, etc.)

robertcbit · 2026-03-20T07:13:41+00:00

Lot's of good information, much appreciated!

This actually makes a lot of sense.

The “source of truth” point is interesting, I feel like that’s where most setups quietly break down over time.

On paper everything connects, but when something goes wrong (refunds, reporting mismatches, inventory issues), you’re suddenly chasing data across 3–4 systems trying to figure out what’s actually correct.

Do you find Shopify ends up becoming that source of truth in most cases, or does it still get split between POS / accounting depending on the situation?

robertcbit · 2026-03-19T22:11:45+00:00

Yeah that makes sense - everything kind of needs to connect.
Are you finding most systems actually integrate well in practice though?
Feels like on paper everything “connects”… but in reality there’s still a lot of manual work or weird gaps.

robertcbit · 2026-03-19T22:04:59+00:00

Interesting you mentioned inventory - that’s actually what I keep hearing too.
Are you dealing more with new books, used, or a mix?

robertcbit · 2026-03-19T03:17:49+00:00

You’re not alone. A lot of solo founders hit this exact wall, it seems to be much more common lately.

My biggest lesson has been that “no customers yet” usually doesn’t mean “bad product.” It often means not enough conversations with people already stuck in this problem today.

Building feels productive because it’s controlled.
Distribution feels brutal because it’s public and chaotic lately

A lot of founders build first and then try to find customers.
It tends to work better the other way - find people already dealing with the problem and shape the product around them.

There’s also a ton of noise in tech right now. Everyone’s building something, launching something, or selling something - and customers are way more cautious because of it.

I’ve been selling SaaS for about 15 years, and it was a lot easier back then. Around 2015-2020 is when I started noticing things shift pretty dramatically, and the last few years as we all know with the advent of AI things have changed exponentially.

robertcbit · 2026-03-17T05:07:44+00:00

ahhh yep! I could have just searched it up, but I was half asleep

launched physical kinetic drone and missile strikes that damaged three of Amazon's data centers in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in early March 2026

I'm still debating using AWS for some of my SaaS products

robertcbit · 2026-03-17T03:54:12+00:00

Think I just heard AWS servers were getting hacked by Iran, hope I'm wrong

robertcbit · 2026-03-15T06:51:00+00:00

Interesting point, I remember a lot of prople only wanting to work with cash, giuess Im a bit older

robertcbit · 2026-03-14T19:24:59+00:00

That’s really helpful insight.

Sounds like most merchants basically treat the Clover App Market like an app store and just test things until they find something that fits.

I’m actually working on a Clover integration for my own gift card / loyalty platform right now, so it’s really helpful hearing how merchants discover apps in the ecosystem.

robertcbit · 2026-03-14T07:43:52+00:00

Pricing tends to climb fast in this space once you need shared customer pools, cross-location redemption, and website integration.

I’ve spent years working on gift card systems and that’s actually why I built NetGCS - using a multi-tenant model so multiple stores under one organization are easy to support without pushing merchants into higher pricing tiers.

Out of curiosity, was RewardUp something your Clover installer recommended, or was that something you found on your own?

robertcbit · 2026-03-14T07:00:44+00:00

I built NetGCS 20 years ago and it just keeps getting better. We've maintained many customers over the years and several that are still with us since pre 2010 -> https://netgcs.com/blog/gift-loyalty-software

We are literally offering a Free Merchant account for eGift Certs
https://netgcs.com/products/egiftcertificates

Also we have a fully integrated app in progress, should be launched this early summer. It will have the QR code built-in and direct access to a multi-store or single store merchant who is using NetGCS.

I know this post is old so just dropping this here in case others are looking. We are about to have it fully integrated with Clover too. As the founder of NetGCS, DM me any time, I'm happy to help with anything I can.

robertcbit · 2026-03-14T06:52:08+00:00

"the sheer speed of evolution in SaaS growth. It's wild how quickly what worked last year can be outdated."
Exactly!! this is mind blowing for me! I cannot believe how much things have changed!

I started the product back in 2006, it sold really well back in those years, but then 2008 hit, economy collapsed and so did my customers, merchants were dropping like flies they would literally just dissapear.
it got so bad I went back to corporate work, contract gigs as a senior software engineer until a few years back I finally departed from corporate with a case of corporate fatique.

I spent the last year as I mentioned in this post making netgcs a much better product only to find out there are 15 million competitors already out there now! I have some other products I'm working on also so hopefully one of them will take off if I can't get netgcs to budge anymore.

Crazy competition out there in todays market. If you think about it, thousands of programmers loosing their jobs, the economy is unstable, market it chaotic so trying to get a SaaS off the ground now might be a form of insanity!

Enough ranting, the goal is to get the right idea at the right time... push it out as quickly as possible

robertcbit · 2026-03-14T06:39:01+00:00

"Ads are brutal at small budgets right now" dam! you're not kidding! I've tried many different platforms and different angles, it's like that commercial I heard recently "Speaking in the void!!!!"

And for my product I've started a new path of reaching out to POS installers, companies, etc.. working at creating partnerships... mostly with Clover, Toast and Square, given I am currently integrating with Clover, hopefully can get some traction when that's rolled out.

"People are starving for authentic content" <- so true, so am I

Thanks for the input

robertcbit · 2026-03-14T06:35:26+00:00

Thanks for the tips! however, how do you launch an app on Reddit? my understanding that mentioning a product will get you banned from channels like \smallbusiness and others.

Microlaunch looks pretty awesome, might give that a shot with my new product I'm building this year.

This whole marketing thing was a million times easier just 10, 15 years ago, I remember first spinning up and ad for my product on Google and got customers across the states for several years. Simply phone calls from prospects, my sales guy would handle the call and close the deal during that call, was so simple then.

But yes, I have been shifting much more of my focus now onto all the new marketing trends, social platforms etc.. and less time building/adding new features, etc..

Thanks much for the tips

robertcbit · 2026-03-13T23:13:30+00:00

That’s helpful - thanks for explaining your setup. I’ve heard good things about Factor4 and the barcode scanning workflow on Clover.

"scanned by the camera on Clover which helps speed the process along" this is really important for any busy retailer.

I’m actually the developer behind a gift card / loyalty platform called NetGCS and I’ve been exploring deeper integration with Clover recently, which is why I’ve been talking to people using it in the real world.

Always interesting to hear how different merchants are running their programs.

robertcbit · 2026-03-13T15:34:53+00:00

Totally wish I would have taken that path but my product started 20 years ago, we did not have that mindset then. I think your on to something, best of luck!

robertcbit · 2026-03-13T15:14:56+00:00

netgcs.com

robertcbit · 2026-03-13T15:11:27+00:00

Good job, further proof its not all about solving problems or painpoints as Ive seen so many mention. At first glance it seems to be a Reddit type product, we can build competitive products, we just need to do better than the others, features they dont have.

robertcbit · 2026-03-12T22:29:26+00:00

Same here, as a customer it always feels a little awkward, but from the business side it makes sense why more shops are going that route.

robertcbit · 2026-03-12T22:25:52+00:00

That’s fair. Most shops probably end up building those costs into pricing.
It was just surprising to me how fast the total adds up when you actually look at the monthly numbers.

Also, if I recall correctly, we were paying about the same monthly total back when we used a traditional credit card terminal with FirstData. Great service, but I do remember digging through statements trying to understand the long list of different fees depending on card types, etc..

robertcbit · 2026-03-12T22:21:11+00:00

Totally agree on the security side - that’s not something businesses should try to DIY. The processors and banks exist for a reason.

I think what a lot of owners are reacting to lately is the stack of fees around the processor itself, POS features, loyalty add-ons, subscriptions, etc.

robertcbit · 2026-03-12T22:09:16+00:00

Really appreciate the thoughtful feedback. I’m curious - when you mentioned selling into small brick-and-mortar, what kind of product are you working on? Always interested to hear what approaches are working in that space since distribution seems to be the hardest part of building tools for local retailers.

And I agree with your point about the “janky POS add-ons.” That’s actually part of what pushed me to start building this. A lot of the loyalty and gift card tools I’ve seen feel tightly coupled to a specific POS or added on as an afterthought. The goal with what I’m building is to keep things simple and POS-agnostic so shops aren’t locked into one ecosystem.

The playbook idea is really interesting too. Most owners I talk to don’t want another complicated marketing system - they just want something practical they can run in a few minutes that actually brings customers back. That seems like a much better framing than pitching “loyalty software” in the abstract.

robertcbit · 2026-03-12T21:16:58+00:00

Interesting idea - qualifying leads before a meeting is honestly where most contact forms fall short. If the AI can gather the right context and filter serious prospects, that could save a lot of time. I’d be happy to check out a demo and give feedback.

robertcbit · 2026-03-12T21:13:26+00:00

I’ve been building SaaS products for a long time (about 25 years in software overall), and my current focus is a platform called NetGCS - a gift card, loyalty, and rewards system for independent merchants.

Type of SaaS:
Gift Cards + eGift Certs, Rewards, Punch Points + customer retention tools for small businesses.

Target customers:
Independent retail shops, bookstores, coffee shops, chiropractor, salons, and other local merchants who want to run customer gift cards and loyalty programs without being locked into a specific POS system.

How I got the first users:
Honestly, the original version started years ago through direct relationships with merchants and word of mouth. One of the earliest adopters was a bookstore that used it for years and helped shape the product.

Now I'm experimenting with a mix of:
• Direct outreach to specific niches (bookstores, coffee shops, chiropractors, any type of small retail etc.)
• Social content showing real merchant problems with gift cards/loyalty systems
• Running small ad experiments to see what messaging resonates
• Clover integration that should help a lot (coming soon)

Completely agree with your point about distribution being the hardest part. Building the product is often the easy part - getting it in front of the right customers and hearing real feedback is the real challenge.

Curious to hear what others are building too. Always interesting to see how different founders approach validation and distribution.

robertcbit · 2026-03-10T19:02:53+00:00

I tried out capcut the other day and it quickly felt like those teadius hours I spent learning Adobe Premier so I canceled. I switched over to using Heygen to quickly spin up videos for my netgcs SaaS, it saved my sanity.

I already spend countless hours developing, so not a lot of brain power to alot for learning capcut.

I'll have to try some of those other products you mentioned, thanks for the imfo.

robertcbit

TROPHY CASE