unlocksaas/indie-saas-teardowns huggingface dataset:
Substack (Newsletter publishing and paid-subscription platform) by Substack, Inc.

Substack helps writers run paid newsletters. Unlock SaaS helps non-engineer founders get a SaaS its first paying customer. Different products, different customer.

What it is: A hosted newsletter platform with built-in subscriptions, payments, and discovery|A revenue model for writers who want paid readers, not a content marketing tool|A genuinely good path from 'I write' to 'people pay me to read what I write'
What it is not: A diagnostic of why your shipped SaaS product is converting at zero|A way to find and message the first specific human who would pay for your software|A refund tied to your Stripe ledger if no SaaS customer arrives in 60 days
Who it's for: Writers, journalists, and operators whose product IS a newsletter and whose revenue model IS paid subscriptions to that newsletter.
Who it's not for: Founders whose product is a SaaS and who are looking for SaaS customers, not newsletter subscribers.

Verdict: Substack is the right answer if you are running a newsletter as the product. It is the wrong answer if you are running a SaaS and trying to grow it by 'starting a newsletter' as a distribution hack — most pre-revenue founders never reach the audience size where a Substack moves the SaaS needle. Unlock SaaS treats the direct problem instead: get the next single paying customer for the software, with the Playbook executing and the refund-in-code on the line.

Pricing: Substack is free to publish; the platform takes ~10% of paid-subscription revenue (verified 2026-05-18). Unlock SaaS is $1 Starter + $49/month Playbook.
Notion (All-in-one workspace (docs, wiki, database, project tracker)) by Notion Labs, Inc.

Notion is where your work lives. Unlock SaaS decides which work actually produces a paying customer. Different jobs, different shelves.

What it is: A flexible workspace mixing docs, databases, wikis, and lightweight project tracking|A horizontal tool used across product, marketing, ops, knowledge management, and personal organisation|A genuinely strong second-brain and team-knowledge surface
What it is not: A diagnostic of why your shipped offer page is converting at zero|An outreach mechanism that sends one specific message to one named human|A Stripe-verified guarantee tied to your real customer ledger
Who it's for: Solo operators and teams who want one flexible surface for notes, docs, wikis, and lightweight project tracking.
Who it's not for: Founders whose problem is not 'we are not organised' but 'we shipped a product and nobody is paying for it'.

Verdict: Notion is a genuinely great workspace. Workspace quality does not produce paying customers. Unlock SaaS exists for the upstream decision Notion does not make: which one human you should talk to this week, what to say, and whether the offer page is even survivable. Keep Notion for notes; let the Playbook decide what the notes should be about.

Pricing: Notion has a free Personal tier and paid Plus, Business, and Enterprise plans billed per member per month (verified 2026-05-18). Unlock SaaS is $1 Starter + $49/month Playbook.
Calendly (Scheduling and meeting-booking software) by Calendly LLC

Calendly books the meeting. Unlock SaaS decides whether the meeting should exist and what to do if no one books it. Different layers of the funnel.

What it is: A scheduling tool that lets prospects book time on your calendar without back-and-forth|A near-universal integration in B2B sales motions and customer success workflows|A genuinely good answer to the 'when are you free' email thread
What it is not: A reason anyone wants to book a meeting with you in the first place|A diagnostic of why your offer page is converting at zero|A Stripe-verified guarantee tied to your customer ledger
Who it's for: Anyone whose existing audience already wants to talk to them and needs a frictionless way to book the call.
Who it's not for: Founders whose Calendly link is plumbed everywhere but nobody is booking — adding more Calendly is not the fix.

Verdict: Calendly is the right answer once people want to talk to you. The upstream problem — getting one specific human to want a conversation about your specific product — is what Unlock SaaS exists for. The Playbook produces the named human and the message that earns the meeting; Calendly then takes the booking. Use both, in that order.

Pricing: Calendly has a free tier and paid Standard, Teams, and Enterprise plans billed per seat per month (verified 2026-05-18). Unlock SaaS is $1 Starter + $49/month Playbook.
ClickUp (Project management and work-OS platform) by ClickUp, Inc.

ClickUp gives you a project-management surface that does almost everything. Unlock SaaS narrows the surface to one thing: get a paying customer.

What it is: A horizontally broad project-management platform with tasks, docs, goals, automations, dashboards, and time tracking|A 'one app to replace them all' positioning aimed at teams consolidating tooling|A genuinely capable backbone for shipping team work once the work is scoped
What it is not: A way to decide which one piece of work this week actually produces revenue|A diagnostic of why your already-shipped product is converting at zero|A Stripe-verified guarantee that a paying customer arrives in 60 days
Who it's for: Teams that want a deep, configurable, all-in-one project management tool and have the time to set it up.
Who it's not for: Solo non-engineer founders pre-first-customer whose problem is not 'we cannot track tasks' but 'we cannot turn our live product into revenue'.

Verdict: ClickUp is excellent at being a configurable home for team work. Pre-revenue solo founders almost never have a team-coordination problem — they have a 'no one is paying yet' problem. Unlock SaaS treats that problem directly: one diagnostic, one playbook, one Stripe-verified refund. Use ClickUp later when you have a team and a backlog worth coordinating.

Pricing: ClickUp has a free tier and paid Unlimited, Business, Business Plus, and Enterprise plans billed per user per month (verified 2026-05-18). Unlock SaaS is $1 Starter + $49/month Playbook.
Loom (Async video messaging) by Loom (an Atlassian company)

Loom helps you record and send a video. Unlock SaaS helps you decide whether a video should exist and what the message inside it should be.

What it is: An async video tool that records screen, camera, and microphone with one click|A genuinely fast way to replace meetings, demos, and long Slack threads with a watchable clip|A common surface for product walkthroughs, customer onboarding, and sales follow-ups
What it is not: A reason anyone wants to watch your video in the first place|A diagnostic of why your offer page is converting at zero|A Stripe-verified guarantee that a paying customer arrives in 60 days
Who it's for: Solo operators and teams whose existing audience already wants to hear from them and prefers async video to meetings.
Who it's not for: Founders sending Loom walkthroughs into the void with no replies — adding more Looms is not the fix.

Verdict: Loom is the right medium once someone wants to hear from you. The harder upstream problem — getting one specific human to want a personalised walkthrough of your specific product — is what Unlock SaaS exists for. The Playbook produces the named human and the reason the video is worth watching; Loom then records it. Use both, in that order.

Pricing: Loom has a free tier and paid Business and Enterprise plans billed per creator per month (verified 2026-05-18). Unlock SaaS is $1 Starter + $49/month Playbook.