Twitter is killing its free API and dramatically increasing the cost to use the paid version. This is already having repercussions for the many SaaS apps that use the API to post on behalf of users. With the turmoil and changes happening over there, I think we're watching the death of a platform in real-time. Maybe GPT-4 can make a new Twitter.

The Best Bits

• You can now send push notifications to WebApps on iOS.
• PNPM 8 has been released to save your hard drive.
• Tailwind v3.3 was released with darker darks.
• The Twitter API is effectively unmaintained.

Running a one-person business

Even as the AI war rages on, I love reading about the small players building successful businesses in the least flashy of ways. These people have found a small niche and written software to solve the problem in that area.

Some of these people do some marketing. Some don't.

There are lots of different angles to building your solo business, but many of these start by seeing a very specific need that is not met very well.

The key – is that you don't worry about market size.

The internet is enormous, and if you solve a specific problem very well (note: pain), you'll find some people looking to get it solved easier. And they're willing to pay a little money to make that happen.

Here are some examples:

• A USB driver that allows you to use a USB device over the internet between computers.
• Website templates.
• Shopify plugins.
• Ngrok.
• Watermark desktop app for Mac and Windows.
• BuiltWith is a free tool that lets you see what technologies power a website.
• A tool to monitor cron jobs.
• A WordPress theme.
• Desktop app for seat planning.

I prefer SaaS as a product as opposed to a desktop or mobile app, but the world's your oyster here. However, you can best solve the product is key for your users. Figure out the business model and technology later.

What's common between many of these is that they focus on a specific niche, and they've been at it for a long time.

Success does not come overnight.

Learn to build SaaS

I haven't completed the guide, but I do have the code on the website for now.

Tech Tip

A great tool you should use is ripgrep, which is a better, faster grep. It automatically ignores files in your gitignore and has smart rules for skipping hidden directories.

Fully supported on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

For us Mac folks:

brew install rg

You can then update your FZF command to use rg instead for faster finds:

## Add to .bashrc or .zshrc

export FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND='rg --files --follow --no-ignore-vcs --hidden -g "!{node_modules/*,.git/*}"'

Cloud Chronicles

• YouTube Subscribers: 477 (+95)
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I've been considering building a Next.js course, a massive undertaking that would span beginners to experts. The hardest part would be creating a great site and the visuals to go with the videos. But I think it would show off my expertise with Next.js in an important and helpful way.

In the meantime, I've been playing around with ways to meaningfully integrate with GPT and add value to the projects you already have going.

The Last Byte

• Gordon Moore of Moore's law passed away at the age of 94.
• Apple's WWDC is June 5-9 this year.
• The Next.js app directory now supports static exports.