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What’s the problem?

Most solopreneurs think software distribution has to be brutal. But for a lot of small software ideas, the better move is not creating demand from scratch.

It’s building where the buyers are already searching.

That’s the gap: most founders obsess over the product, but the real shortcut is finding a marketplace with built-in demand.

What’s the big idea?

Build a small app inside an existing platform marketplace, like the Shopify App Store.

The product does not need to be huge. It just needs to solve one annoying workflow for one specific type of store owner. Launch it free. Collect installs. Push for reviews. Then convert a slice of users to paid plans once the app becomes part of their store’s daily workflow.

The boring version is “make a Shopify app.”

The better version is: Find one painful store-owner task, solve it cleanly, and let the app store do the selling.

▶ Erikas Malisauskas runs five Shopify apps generating $4.5 million per year at roughly 90% margins, with zero marketing spend. His playbook is simple but powerful: pick a platform where customers already exist, launch free to reduce friction, collect five-star reviews aggressively, and let the review count drive organic installs. He went from earning $2 per hour to building a multi-million-dollar solo software business by repeating the same marketplace pattern across multiple apps.

Zooming out: The platform is the distribution…

The bigger opportunity isn’t just Shopify. It’s the marketplace model.

Shopify store owners already go to the app store looking for tools. They search for reviews, bundles, inventory alerts, upsells, review requests, shipping fixes, abandoned cart helpers, and tiny operational shortcuts.

🔺 The winners will be the marketplace hackers who understand how to build and rank an app where the buyer is already looking.

🔻 The risk is platform dependency and the fix is to treat the app store as the acquisition channel, not the whole business.

The Ramen Hustle next step: ...find the smallest painful workflow.

Start by browsing Shopify App Store categories and reading bad reviews. That’s where the ideas hide. Then pick one niche store type and one workflow. Not “an app for ecommerce.” Something tighter. Build the simplest free version first.

The goal is not to build one giant app. It’s to build one tiny app that ranks, then repeat.

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The dog is no longer just the dog.

It is the child, the roommate, the emotional support intern, the reason half the camera roll is unusable, and now, the owner of a recurring services budget.

That shift is creating one of the more interesting local service trends: pet care is moving from the strip mall to the driveway.

The U.S. pet industry hit $158 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $165 billion in 2026. Pet ownership is not wobbling either: 95 million U.S. households now own at least one pet.

The gap is convenience.

Traditional grooming means booking ahead, driving across town, leaving the dog for hours, and hoping the pet does not come home stressed out. Mobile grooming flips the model. The groomer shows up, parks outside, handles the wash, cut, nails, ears, and cleanup, then moves to the next driveway.

That convenience is becoming a premium category.

Solopreneurs are already working the gap. One Oakland startup employee built a mobile pet grooming side hustle alongside his day job. The “mobile” part was the wedge: higher pricing than dog walking, no storefront, and a service customers need again every few weeks.

The bigger operators show where the solo version can go. Lucky Dog Mobile Groomers scaled into 40+ U.S. service areas across 20+ states after launching in 2023. Barkbus now serves markets across Southern California, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, and more.

The unique angle is route density.

A solo groomer does not need to own a city. They need to own a few wealthy neighborhoods, apartment buildings, senior communities, or dog-heavy suburbs where customers rebook every 4 to 8 weeks.