The best product ideas come from scratching your own itch. At First Party, we're taking this to an extreme: every tool we need to run our portfolio becomes a product in the portfolio.
The Loop
- We need uptime monitoring for our products → we build YourSiteIsDown
- We need link tracking for marketing → we build LinkSmith
- We need email automation for signups → we build an email platform
- Each new product needs the same tools → the portfolio compounds
Why Incumbents Lose
Mailchimp has 2,000 features. We need 20. HubSpot costs $800/mo. We need $20/mo of value. Google Analytics tracks everything. We need to know if people are signing up.
The big players can't build simple, focused tools because their business model depends on complexity. Our business model depends on simplicity.
The Math
- Build time: 1 week per product (AI-assisted)
- Target market: existing $20-40M segments
- Price point: 50% of incumbent
- Required market share: 5-10%
- Revenue per product: $1M/year
One person with AI agents can build and maintain what used to require a 50-person team. The economics are absurd.