Indie hacker playbook is dead: tiny SaaS now competes on distribution, not code
nico_jeannen · x · 2026-09-18
nicojeannen argues that doing "tiny SaaS" and mobile apps today is like print-on-demand in 2019: anyone can pick up Codex and build the same thing, so the old playbook of solving one tiny problem, building in public and doing SEO no longer works. But a flooded market isn't a dead one — you're now competing against people aggressively monetizing mediocre products with great distribution, which ironically raises the distribution barrier to entry.
Related event: Indie Dev Declares Tiny SaaS Golden Era Over as AI Coding Levels the Field(4 posts)→
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