8. If I Were You: The Next 90 Days
The single most important thing
Don't build FormDrop. Spend week 1 deciding between three options, in this order:
- Pick another idea in this portfolio with an open gap. DocPress is the closest fit for a developer.
- Buy an existing small form backend, if the category itself is what appeals.
- Run the DACH-agency fallback only if you have German and access to agencies, with a day-45 kill test: 5 agencies paying ≥€39 a month, or stop.
The rest of this plan covers option 3, because it's the only build path. It's designed for limited weekly hours: automation first, email-only support, and nothing that needs you online at set times.
Week 1: decide
| Task | Exit criteria |
|---|---|
| Answer the inputs in analysis/09: distribution slot, German, hours, agency access | If you have no German and no distribution slot, stop here. |
| Price a purchase: list 10 small form backends, email 5 founders about selling | You know what an existing one would cost. If one fits your budget, buying beats building. |
Week-by-week (fallback only)
| Weeks | Goal | Exit criteria |
|---|---|---|
| 2–3 | Discovery. Build a list of 80 DACH agencies that build Astro, Hugo, Next.js, Framer or AI-built client sites. Hold 20 (15 hrs/week) or 30 (full-time) calls. Ask: where do client forms send data today, what do clients ask about it, what do you pay now? | At least 1 in 5 agencies says clients ask about US form tools, or that they'd pay to stop handling form admin. If not, stop. |
| 4–5 | Concierge pilot. Wire one client site per agency by hand, using an open-source form handler on an EU server, with an AVV. Charge €39 a month from the first site. | Offers made to 10 agencies. |
| 6–7 | Day-45 kill test. | 5 paying ≥€39 (full-time) or 3 (15 hrs/week). If you miss, stop. Don't switch segment: every other segment is covered by an incumbent or a free platform feature. |
| 8–10 | Thin v1: endpoint, honeypot, rate limits, proof-of-work captcha, EU email sending with per-client domains, per-client workspaces, AVV and TOMs in the dashboard, German docs for 5 frameworks, Paddle billing. Abuse controls: destination verification, phishing-field block. | Pilots move to self-serve. Zero notifications lost in testing. |
| 11–12 | First repeatable channel. 10 German long-tail pages. A paid migration offer for agencies leaving US form backends. Outbound to the next 50 agencies. | 8 paying, ~$250 MRR (15 hrs/week) or 15 paying, ~$450 MRR (full-time). Revenue churn not yet measurable, so track sites per agency: target ≥3. |
Kill criteria (write these down now)
- Fewer than 3 (15 hrs/week) or 5 (full-time) agencies paying by day 45.
- Fewer than 8 / 15 paying by day 90.
- Any paying agency with only one site asking to downgrade to a free tier.
If any one is hit, stop. Don't respond by adding features, and don't switch to the AI-builder or generic wedge: both are worse.
The one thing to stop doing
Stop treating the endpoint as the product.
The endpoint is solved: Web3Forms, Formspree, Netlify, Lovable and ten entrants all do it. It's the most pleasant part to build and the least likely to earn anything. Every hour spent polishing it is an hour not spent finding out whether any agency will pay. In this category, distribution is the product.
What stays on the long-term roadmap (only after proof)
- Client read-only inboxes and workspace handover.
- Webhooks and n8n / Make / Zapier.
- A white-label deal with an EU host or agency network (the one pivot allowed).
- French or Dutch versions, only after $2k MRR in DACH.
- A sale of the business, if it plateaus. Keep clean payment-processor records from day 1.