9. Assumptions and Open Inputs
This idea came from row C6 of the 30 Sept 2026 micro-SaaS idea catalog, not from a founder's brief. No team, price, geography, stage or traction was given. Here's what I assumed, and how the verdict changes if each assumption is wrong.
9.1 Assumptions made
| Input | Assumption used | If actually different… |
|---|---|---|
| Ritual | Open. The assessment picked anonymous questions | If you have a strong reason for another ritual (for example, you run on-call for a living and know a gap), send it. The scoring in 02 §2.1 still applies. |
| Platform | Slack first, Teams "possibly". The assessment reversed it. | If you already have a Slack app with installs, the Slack version becomes the faster start. Odds rise at $1k–3k and stay flat above $5k. |
| Team | One developer, able to build a Teams bot | If you've never built for Teams, add 4–6 weeks, or multiply odds by ~0.65. |
| Hours per week available | Two columns: ~15 hrs/week and full-time | Under 10 hrs/week: this is still one of the better fits in the portfolio, but expect the ~15 hrs/week figures to fall by about a third. |
| Geography | Sell worldwide in English. US, UK and EU buyers first. | EU-only: add EU hosting and a works-council pack from day 1. |
| Stage | Idea. No code, no users. | Any existing chat app with installs changes the picture most. |
| Price | Team $29 / Business $79 / Organisation $199 per month, ~$70 blended | Below $40 blended, $10k needs 250+ organisations and the upper rungs fall by about a third. |
| Churn | ~3% monthly logo churn after month 6 (not verified for this category) | At 5%+, $5k and above become unlikely at any hours. |
| Install-to-paid | Abot's ~2% as the floor; 8–15% of trials as the target | If Teams trials convert below 10%, the Store alone can't reach $3k. |
| Funding | None | Money doesn't change the advice. The constraint is installs. |
9.2 Inputs that would change the verdict most (please supply)
- Hours per week available, and for how long.
- Whether you've built a Teams or Slack app before, and in which language.
- Access to buyers: do you know 10 people who run all-hands or internal comms at organisations on Teams?
- Your own Microsoft 365 tenant or a friendly company's, for pilots and Store testing.
- Target geography and any EU works-council experience.
- Why this idea: do you want a small app that runs itself, or a company? This one suits the first.
9.3 Definitions used throughout
- Paying organisation: one Microsoft 365 tenant (or one Slack workspace, after the port) on a paid plan.
- Question window: a scheduled period, usually before an all-hands, when staff can post and upvote anonymous questions.
- Tier A and Tier B: as defined in the portfolio README.
- Monthly logo churn: paying organisations lost in a month, divided by paying organisations at the start of it.
- MRR: monthly recurring subscription revenue, with annual plans divided by 12, after refunds, before platform fees.