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What's the Problem? (Every Monday)
Five problems, trends, or stats you can turn into a business. We find the opportunities, you build.
Ahead of the Curve (Every Wednesday)
Discover a new untapped trend every week. We analyse where attention's shifting, why it matters, and how you can capitalise early. This is where we predict the future.
The people who got rich in the gold rush weren’t the miners - they were the ones selling picks, shovels, tents, and jeans to the miners.
While everyone’s racing to launch the next course, SaaS, agency, AI tool, or dropshipping brand - the smartest founders are making money by enabling the race itself.
They’re not chasing the trend. They’re selling the infrastructure, templates, tools, and services that others use to chase it.
And here’s the truth: most of those businesses will fail.
But the people supplying them? They profit either way.
Shopify didn’t start a brand - they built the rails for millions of others to try.
Stripe doesn’t sell products - they just take a cut every time someone else does.
OpenAI’s biggest customers aren’t consumers - they’re the thousands of people using its API to spin up the next big thing.
Let's jump in.
Make your marketing less boring
The best marketing ideas come from marketers who live it.
That’s what this newsletter delivers.
The Marketing Millennials is a look inside what’s working right now for other marketers. No theory. No fluff. Just real insights and ideas you can actually use—from marketers who’ve been there, done that, and are sharing the playbook.
Every newsletter is written by Daniel Murray, a marketer obsessed with what goes into great marketing. Expect fresh takes, hot topics, and the kind of stuff you’ll want to steal for your next campaign.
Because marketing shouldn’t feel like guesswork. And you shouldn’t have to dig for the good stuff.
⭐️ Examples
Zapier / Make.com – Glue for connecting tools. Let others automate their business.
AWS / Google Cloud / Azure – Sell compute, storage, hosting critical infrastructure for SaaS startups.
Shopify – Instead of running stores, they enable millions of people to start one. They were the shovel in the e-commerce gold rush.
Canva / Figma / Notion – Everyone uses these to make things, not to be the thing.
Printful / Gelato / Printify – Let others start print-on-demand brands.
OpenAI – Sells access to intelligence - tokens, APIs, and developer tools powering thousands of startups
Nvidia – These guys are the real shovels in the AI race. They make the GPUs that every AI company needs to train and deploy models.
💡 What to Copy
Build for builders → The gold’s in the tools & resources, not the treasure.
Sell time, not magic → Skip the hype. Package speed, infra, shortcuts.
Productize the plumbing → APIs, dashboards, templates = $$$.
💡 Ideas
Everyone and their dog is launching a course, coaching program, or info product. Or they’re trying to build a new chatbot or AI automation to sell to businesses.
Here are some ideas
Resell-Ready Digital Product Infrastructure
Build a platform or backend that supplies high-quality digital products others can rebrand and resell — think plug-and-play:
Prompt packs
Templates
Calculators
Spreadsheets
Notion dashboards
Airtable workflows
You become the inventory layer for creators, agencies, coaches, and niche SaaS founders who want to launch “their own” product fast.
→ You’re not selling to end users. You’re supplying the suppliers.
More on that here.
White-Label Product Platform
Let others start their own brand by plugging into your back-end. Think of this like:
Printful for digital goods (auto-generate + fulfil)
Kajabi for niche courses
LemonSqueezy but vertical
→ You win when they launch their "gold," but you own the mine.
More on that here.
Niche Commerce Infrastructure
A fully integrated backend for a specific niche with complex workflows, e.g.:
"Shopify for home services"
"Shopify for rentals"
"Shopify for ghost kitchens"
→ It’s not just a site builder — it’s inventory, orders, delivery, customers, and payments.
More on that here.
B2B Niche Data Provider
You gather + sell structured data in a hard-to-access niche (e.g., veterinary clinics, government SaaS, fleet operators, logistics warehouses).
→ These data products are fuel. Every founder building for the niche will pay you.
More on that here.
Trend Data API
Build an API that pipes clean, structured trend data into any app or internal dashboard (e.g. Glimpse + DataforSEO + Google Trends in one).
→ Makers of newsletters, agencies, VCs, product builders — all want trend data to build or bet smarter.
More on that here.
Framer CMS Cloneable for Niche Directories
A cloneable template + CMS structure to launch AI tool directories, job boards, marketplace MVPs.
→ The gold rush is in the directories. You sell the bricks + plumbing.
More on that here.
🛠 How to Build
1. Pick Your Gold Rush
Choose a trend where thousands of people are launching businesses right now:
AI
Courses
Coaching
Dropshipping
SaaS
Newsletters
This isn’t your market. It’s your customer base.
You're not joining the rush. You're selling to the people who are.
2. Find the Bottleneck
Ask: “What do all of them need, regardless of outcome?”
Look for recurring pain or infrastructure that everyone hates building:
Billing (Stripe setup, pricing logic, VAT)
Frontend UI (auth flows, dashboards, paywalls)
Data (lead lists, trend data, supplier directories)
Content ops (prompt management, onboarding scripts)
Trust (compliance, terms, certs, AI training opt-ins)
Your job: productize the bottleneck.
3. Build the Layer, Not the App
Don’t launch another product. Launch the infrastructure that powers others.
Use what already exists:
Use LemonSqueezy or Paddle to power billing
Use Framer, Webflow, or React templates for UI
Use Supabase or Airtable as your backend
Use Make.com, N8N or Zapier to automate delivery
Use ChatGPT/Gemini to generate custom outputs per client
Keep the stack lean. The win is in distribution + reliability, not innovation.
🚀 How to Grow
1. Hijack the Gold Rush Platforms
Where your customers hang out:
Gumroad, LemonSqueezy, Beehiiv
Framer Showcase, Product Hunt, Indie Hackers
Twitter/X circles for AI/SaaS/builders
Discords/Slack groups (Indie Worldwide, Small Bets, etc.)
Don’t pitch your shovel directly - instead:
Show how it powers what they are already building
Create demos: “How I launched this AI tool in 1 hour using [your shovel]”
Share frameworks and templates
Offer to plug it in for free on call #1
2. Turn Customers Into Case Studies
You’re helping them dig. So show what they built with your help.
Post: “This AI tool hit $1k MRR in 3 weeks - here’s the backend it runs on”
You win even when they just start digging.
3. Build for Reusability, Sell for Speed
The key value prop is time saved + foundation secured.
Package the same system for multiple audiences:
“SaaS starter kit for coaches”
“Checkout + paywall for Gumroad creators”
“Framer bundle for AI tool frontends”
Same shovel. Multiple miners.
🎬 How to Start
1. Startup Capital Needed
Tools:
Framer / Webflow / Notion → for UI (free–£20/mo)
Supabase or Airtable → for backend (free tiers work)
Stripe / LemonSqueezy → to test billing (free)
Make.com or Zapier → to automate delivery (optional)
GPT-4o / Claude → for copy, code, demos
Total cost: Under £50.
2. What an MVP Looks Like
A functional product that solves one core business-building pain:
“Stripe-powered billing dashboard for coaches”
“Prebuilt client onboarding flow for agencies”
“Done-for-you AI prompt dashboard for solopreneurs”
Sell it as a one-pager, demo, or plug-and-play workspace.
3. Initial Outreach Strategy
DM/email script:
“Hey — noticed you’re launching [type of product]. I built something to help save you 10+ hours of setup time.
It's a ready-made backend for [X use case] — Stripe setup, login, UI, everything. Want me to send over a preview?”
4. What a “Good Start” Looks Like
Week 1: Ship 1 shovel MVP and post the build breakdown
Week 2: Get 5 people using it (free or paid)
Month 1: Turn the top use case into a paid version (£100–£500)
Month 2: Add a second shovel variation for a nearby niche
By Month 3: Have 10–20 paying users or 3 B2B clients
5. Pricing Benchmarks
DIY Template Pack: £29–£99
Plug-and-Play Shovel (semi-custom): £250–£1,000
Fully Integrated for One Client: £2,000–£5,000
Subscription Infrastructure (API, dashboard, SDK): £20–£200/mo
👀 Things Worth Checking Out
Find Your Next Million-Dollar Idea with 43 proven frameworks to help you generate profitable business ideas on demand.
Access the internet’s largest database of business ideas - over 10,000 ideas with startup guides, growth strategies, and niche opportunities.
The best businesses solve specific problems, so we created a database with hundreds of problems begging for a solution.
🔥 Cool Stuff
(Bookmark these)
Want sh*tloads of business ideas? Get over 10,000+ in the Internet’s Biggest Business Ideas Database
Want to know problems that your next business should solve? Access the Problems & Pain Points Database.
Bootstrapped Growth - Every Tuesday, you get 3 marketing examples, 2 free resources, and 1 growth strategy breakdown.
Want to grow your business? Here’s a database of tools that can help.
Want to promote your startup for free? Here’s a database of free places to promote your startup.
Want to turn your idea into a business? Check out this business idea checklist.
Want to differentiate from your competitors? Check out this Differentiation Strategy Guide
Want to get better results from your ads? Use these proven psychological ad positioning strategies.