I sell pre-owned luxury watches. Over the last year I built my own software to run the business: clients, inventory, deals, shipping, accounting, and AI agents that do the legwork while I make the decisions. I built it because I’m a one-person operation and my time is the bottleneck.

The most useful piece turned out to be pricing. The question I get most is “what’s this watch actually trading for?” The real answer isn’t public. Retail sites show asking prices, but dealers trade with each other at wholesale, and those numbers only move through private WhatsApp groups and DMs. So my software started capturing every wholesale price I saw: reference, dial, bracelet, year, box and papers, price, date. That grew into tens of thousands of sales across thousands of references.

Then another dealer asked if he could pay to look something up. That’s when it clicked: a tool I built for myself was a business on its own.

So I spun that feature out into a subscription for dealers: search a watch, see what dealers actually paid recently, filter by the details that move the price, and work out the most you can pay for the margin you want. $49 a month.

Goal: 300 paying users in 3 months.

For anyone who has spun an internal tool out into a product, or built a niche B2B data product:

1. How did you turn a “look it up when I need it” tool into something people open every week? I’m considering alerts on watches a dealer holds and a weekly email showing what their inventory is worth today, both borrowed from what I use myself.
2. Would you lower the price, offer a founding-member rate with a deadline, or keep the price and fix retention first?
3. In a small, word-of-mouth industry, what worked best for your first 100 customers?

I’ll share what I learn as it goes.

hey! i'm ellie, and my cofounder anthony and i are building pitcher to help early-stage founders get seen outside the usual startup circles.

you can make a free page for your startup with your pitch, team, and what you're looking for, whether that's feedback, customers, or people to build with. people can browse startups without an account, and sign up to follow them or get in touch.

if you're building something, i'd love for you to try adding it and tell us where you get stuck or what's confusing. would you actually use a page like this to share what you're building? what's missing that would make it useful to you?

https://trypitcher.co

honest thoughts in the comments would mean a lot :)

Over the last few weeks I’ve been researching buyer intent and switching signals for 300+ B2B companies and service businesses.

In the managed services world, cold calling has a terrible reply rate and the real wins happen when you reach a business at the exact moment they're facing operational headaches or outgrowing their setup.

If you run an MSP or IT services firm, drop your website and the types of clients or regions you focus on and I’ll run it through the system and dig up:

> Companies showing active infrastructure or IT pain points
> Direct signals of businesses outgrowing their current setup
> Where local decision makers are actively venting about vendor issues
> The specific angles to start a conversation naturally

I'll send the research directly to you so you can see which accounts in your market are in an active buying window right now.

It's completely free so drop your link and target market below if you want to see what the signal data looks like for your area (and I'll be upfront if coverage in your specific pocket is too thin).

edit: adding the link here for anyone who wants the full report and buyer graph delivered directly. just drop your details here in this link and we'll send the research to your inbox. it's completely free.

🚀 Hey everyone! I'm Mmesoma, founder of Nuvilo, an early-stage Nigerian tech startup.

I'm building Nuvilo, an AI-powered customer operations solution designed to help online shops and retail businesses manage customer enquiries more efficiently.

Our vision is to help businesses provide consistent answers, organise customer requests, manage follow-ups, and connect customers with human support when necessary.

We're currently at the early development stage and preparing to build our MVP. I'm actively looking for a technical co-founder or product developer, early-stage funding opportunities, experienced mentors, and strategic partners who can help turn this vision into a practical product.

I'm especially interested in connecting with people experienced in AI, software development, SaaS, customer operations, and startup growth.

If you're interested in collaborating, mentoring, or exploring a potential partnership, I'd love to connect! Feel free to comment or send me a DM.

🌐 Explore Nuvilo: https://nuvilo-shop-answer-buddy.lovable.app

Let's build something meaningful together! 🚀💛