If you’re an indie hacker, you’ve probably spent hours wondering:

“What Micro SaaS idea could help me earn money, live freely, and not depend on investors?”

The bad news is… waiting for a “perfect big idea” almost never works.
The good news is… good ideas are not rare. The harder part is filtering out the ones that are truly worth building.

That’s where the Meat Grinder comes in — a process to run ideas through and keep only the strongest.

1. Don’t wait for the perfect idea, generate many ideas

Many people think starting up begins with “one perfect idea”. That’s wrong.
If you want to be a real indie hacker, you should build the habit of generating at least 5 ideas a day.

How to do it:

• Observe the problems you, your friends, or coworkers face.
• Look at the tools they’re using: what’s slow, frustrating, or expensive?
• Think about how you could make it better, faster, or cheaper.

Do this long enough, and you’ll have a huge “scratchpad” full of raw ideas.

2. Use the Meat Grinder to filter ideas

Rule: If an idea doesn’t pass the Meat Grinder, discard it immediately.
The Meat Grinder only keeps ideas that:

1. You can build yourself (or can quickly learn to build).
2. People are already paying money to solve that problem.
3. You know exactly how to get the first 25 customers (and the next 250).
4. If successful, it will be sustainable and hard to copy instantly.
5. You are the right person to build it in terms of skills, interest, and lifestyle.

2.1. Can you actually build it?

If the idea requires:

• Complex AI
• IoT hardware
• Blockchain deep-tech
  … and you have no clue how to start or who could help, move on.

Tip for indie hackers:
Start with no-code/low-code tools (Bubble, Webflow, Glide, Supabase, Sheetany) or a simple web stack (Next.js, Firebase, Stripe). Your first Micro SaaS just needs to work, not be perfect.

2.2. Are people already spending money?

If customers are already paying for a similar solution, that’s a good sign.
If they’re using Google Sheets for free, you’ll need to be at least 10x better to convince them to switch.

Example:

• Good: “A booking management tool for clinics” (they’re already paying for software).
• Bad: “A note-taking app for students” (they’re using Google Keep for free).

2.3. How will you get your first customers?

“Put it on the App Store and wait for it to go viral” is not a plan.
You need to know exactly where to find your customers and how to approach them.

Example:
Building a project management tool for marketing agencies? → Go on LinkedIn, search “Marketing Agency Founder”, send them a DM with a demo.

2.4. Will it be sustainable if it works?

Think about:

• What prevents competitors from copying you immediately?
• Does your product have data lock-in or deep integration into customers’ workflows?
• Will customers face switching costs if they leave?

If your Micro SaaS integrates deeply into a company’s daily tools and stores valuable data, they’ll be reluctant to switch.

2.5. Are you the right person for this?

You’ll spend a lot of time:

• Talking to customers
• Fixing bugs
• Writing help docs
• Doing marketing

If you hate the industry you’re targeting (e.g., building a SaaS for lawyers but you dislike lawyers), you’ll probably give up eventually.

3. Practice formula

1. Write down 5 ideas a day.
2. Put each one through the Meat Grinder.
3. Discard 95% of them.
4. Keep the survivors.
5. Build an MVP, launch, and learn.
6. Improve your Meat Grinder with each lesson.

Conclusion

Finding Micro SaaS ideas is not about waiting for inspiration. It’s about a process of generating, filtering, testing, and iterating.

If you grind through dozens of ideas each week and still have a few that you just can’t let go of, those are the ones worth building.

Start today: write down 5 ideas, run them through the Meat Grinder, and start grinding.