I was trying to create a newsletter about upcoming IPOs and manage all the content within Airtable. I wanted to import financial API data into Airtable, and couldn't find a quick way to do it.

A couple of months later, having given up on the newsletter idea, I stumbled upon 'API Connector', a Google Sheets addon, on Product Hunt. I decided to build the same thing for Airtable.

It was perfect timing, as Airtable had just opened up their app marketplace to third-party developers.

Most of the initial customers just came from being very early to Airtable's marketplace. I also did all the standard one-time launch things: Product Hunt, Reddit and a few Facebook groups.

I also went on a few podcasts, both Airtable-specific and more general bootstrapping ones. It's hard to track conversions from these, but several customers have mentioned they first heard about the app on a podcast.

The majority of people still just find Data Fetcher in the marketplace. But the other big one is content marketing. About 40% of new customers now find the Data Fetcher through our blog or YouTube channel.

Each blog post/ video shows an example use case for Data Fetcher, e.g. import stock prices to Airtable. The traffic/ view numbers are low, but the intent is really high, so these pieces of content convert really well.

A good way to find relatively low-competition ideas is to copy existing tools for a new, growing platform. Then put your ideas through the Tyler Tringas meat grinder (https://tylertringas.com/business-ideas-meat-grinder/) to validate them.

Build with whatever tech stack you know.

Find a handful of customers via launching publicly. After that, find one scalable marketing channel and absolutely rinse it.