Can you make money building a niche version of old, boring software?
Short answer
Yes. Take a category that's been around 10 or 15 years, like review management or forms, and build the version for one industry you know deeply. A friend's review tool for self-storage owners reportedly makes about $12,000 a month. Sell it through that industry's conferences and Facebook groups.
A buddy of mine built a Google review management tool for self-storage owners. He's making about $12,000 a month and is probably headed past $25,000 in a few months. Review management has been around for 10-plus years. He went super deep into one seemingly tiny niche that's still big enough for one-person software.
Why does an old category work?
The demand is already proven. Nobody needs convincing that reviews or forms matter. What's missing is the version shaped for their industry.
"I have taken a concept that's been around 10, 15 years, forms ... and built the niche version of it."
That's greetform: a survey, conditional lead cards and an offer wall that show up right after someone subscribes to a newsletter.
Why do you need to live the problem?
Only the person living it would think to solve it. A Silicon Valley builder doesn't wake up asking what happens after someone subscribes. A newsletter operator does.
How do I find a problem worth solving?
Start from an audience. There's a famous 2008 essay by Kevin Kelly called "1,000 True Fans." My version of the math: find a thousand people who like and trust you and will pay you $10 a month, and you have $10,000 a month.
AI changes the build side of that math. If you have an audience of 1,000 people in a vertical who all have a problem they'd pay $20 to solve, and you can build it in a week, build it. There are probably ten more problems like it. Problems that never got solved because the build cost more than the benefit are worth solving now.
That's what happened to me. I'd started in this space about 18 months earlier knowing nothing, but I had the audience, which most software builders lack.
How do I sell it?
Go where the industry already gathers: its conferences and Facebook groups. Then let the product market itself:
- Every greetform page carries a light gray "powered by" link in the footer that opens in a new tab, so it doesn't interrupt anyone.
- When people buy a ticket to my local media event, they go through a greetform survey, and the offer wall at the end asks if they want greetform for their own local media. They've already used the product.
When is a niche too small?
When the audience is small and incumbents have a 10-year head start. I shut down my earlier insurance-agency software for that reason, after a lot of money and effort. Niche software should either be easy to build or aimed at a bigger market. More in why good software products fail.
Answered by TJ Larkin. From calls between June and August 2026 and a March 2026 Local Media HQ podcast episode. The review-tool revenue is a friend's, as he reported it. Last updated .