I’m Building a Podcast-to-Clips Micro SaaS (Manually First)

I’ve started building a small micro SaaS: turning long-form podcasts or videos into short clips for Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, etc.

But here’s the important part: I’m starting completely manual. No AI. No automation. No backend.

And this post is about why.

The idea

The core problem is simple:

Creators post long videos, but:

• they don’t have time to clip them


• they don’t know which moments will work as short-form


• or they just procrastinate on it

My idea is straightforward:

• a creator sends a YouTube link (or video)


• I clip 2–5 short vertical videos


• add basic captions


• send them back

That’s it.

Why I’m not building AI or automation (yet)

As a developer, the instinct is always:

“Let me automate this.”

But I’m deliberately not doing that at the start.

Reasons:

• I want to validate real demand, not assumptions


• I want to understand what creators actually want


• I want feedback before writing serious code


• I don’t want to overbuild something nobody uses

Right now, the product is:

• me (yes, just me)


• simple tools


• a lot of learning

And that’s okay.

*The MVP approach

*

The MVP is intentionally boring:

• No login


• No dashboard


• No payments


• No storage


• No fancy UI

Just:

• a simple landing page


• an intake form


• manual delivery

If people don’t want this when it’s simple, adding AI won’t magically fix it.

*Building in public

*

I’ve decided to document this journey openly:

• decisions


• doubts


• progress


• mistakes

Not as a “success story”, but as a real build-in-public experiment.

I recorded a short YouTube video explaining the idea and my approach:

👉 Watch the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2trQxOtVoU&t=4s

If you have any suggestions for me, or would like to try out the tool and provide me some early feedback, please reach out!