Embeddable businesses and digital real estate

From: gregisenberg

An emerging trend in online business creation is the concept of “embeddable businesses,” which focus on owning “real estate” on other people’s websites [09:36:00]. This approach leverages existing platforms and traffic to build and grow a business.

The Concept of Embeddable Businesses

Embeddable businesses allow a product or service to be seamlessly integrated into another website or application, often appearing native to the host platform [10:27:00]. The core idea is to create a digital footprint on external properties, benefiting from their established audience and credibility [11:30:00].

Examples of embeddable functionalities include:

• Forms (e.g., Typeform) [10:21:00]
• Chat widgets
• “Sent with” or “Powered by” branding at the bottom of emails or documents [12:02:00]

Advantages of Embeddable Businesses

1. High Margins: These businesses can achieve margins as high as 99% if they are primarily selling digital badges or software embeds [08:12:00]. This is likened to the insurance business model, where initial revenue is pure margin until claims are made [08:22:00].
2. Consistent Traffic and Digital Real Estate: Instead of constantly generating new traffic, embeddable businesses secure a consistent presence on websites that already attract daily visitors [11:29:00]. This means the business owns “real estate” on someone else’s platform [12:34:00].
3. Automatic Marketing and Credibility:
   • Subtle Branding: Products like Zero (invoicing software) and Beehiiv (newsletter platform) automatically include their branding at the bottom of sent items, providing continuous, indirect marketing [11:57:57]. Users who don’t pay to remove the branding become de facto marketers [12:10:00].
   • Leveraging Authority: When embedded on a credible website, the embeddable business automatically benefits from the host’s authority and reputation [12:40:00]. This strategy was famously used by Gmail, which gained popularity through its “sent with Gmail” signature at the bottom of emails during its invite-only phase [12:55:00].
4. Status Symbol and Aesthetic Appeal: Products that are considered “luxury software” or prioritize aesthetics can use embeddable features to signal status [14:02:00]. The “sent with Superhuman” badge, for instance, implies the user values design and takes their work seriously [14:17:00].
   • Aesthetic Software: Beyond luxury, the concept of “aesthetic software” suggests that a visually pleasing and intuitive design can significantly increase perceived value, even if the backend is simpler [21:01:00]. A clean, clear, and well-designed interface helps attract attention and communicate value [21:25:00].

Startup Idea: Digital Plaques and Awards

An idea for an embeddable business involves creating and selling digital “best product of the year” or “best e-commerce brand of the year” plaques [01:57:00]. These plaques could be physical awards and/or embeddable images for websites, similar to the Better Business Bureau badge [02:07:00].

The goal is to provide credibility for businesses, especially startups and indie hackers who often rely on “trusted at” logos to build trust [03:22:00]. A “Top Product of the Year” image could be more impactful than standard testimonials [03:31:00]. Companies might pay around $200-$300 annually for such a sticker and a physical plaque [03:49:00].

The key to success for this business would be making noise and establishing authority to ensure the plaques carry perceived value and credibility, leading companies to pay for them [06:16:00].

Case Study: Offer Button

Greg Eisenberg built Offer Button.com, an embeddable business that allows website owners to place a button on their site, enabling visitors to make offers to buy the website [08:50:00]. This free tool gained 400 embedded websites, creating a directory of companies for sale [09:19:00].

The insight for Offer Button came from observing “for sale” signs in front of houses and applying that concept to online businesses [16:13:00].

The Idea Maze: “Login with Influencer”

A “germ of an insight” involved incentivizing social sharing by offering discounts or exclusive products to individuals with significant social influence [31:46:00]. The idea was for an e-commerce site to have a “Log in with Influencer” button, allowing users to connect their social profiles (e.g., YouTube) and unlock lower price points or exclusive items based on their subscriber count [32:32:00].

However, this idea was deemed problematic:

• Conversion Impact: Displaying such an option universally could distract or disappoint the vast majority of customers not eligible for benefits, potentially lowering conversion rates for e-commerce brands [34:21:00].
• “Dual Class System”: It creates a “have or have not” system that could alienate regular customers [37:28:00].
• Better Approach: A more effective approach would be for brands to proactively identify and reach out to influencers (e.g., by scraping social profiles in specific niches) and offer benefits directly, rather than making it a public-facing feature that could lead to negative user experiences [38:04:00].

This process highlights the “idea maze,” where initial insights often need significant refinement and validation to become viable products [39:17:17].

Building on Existing Ecosystems: Shopify Apps

The Shopify app ecosystem presents a significant opportunity for building embeddable businesses [41:17:00]. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands consistently pour money into solutions that save time, increase convenience, and boost conversions [45:02:00].

Examples of successful embeddable apps in the Shopify ecosystem include:

• Instant: An instant page builder that uses AI to generate Liquid components (Shopify’s native code language) and offers optimized templates based on split tests. It allows for quickly launching visually appealing stores [41:48:00].
• Proprietary Fulfillment Tracking App: An app built to hide the China origin of shipments by providing customers only with the Last Mile carrier’s tracking link (e.g., USPS in the US), enhancing the customer experience [44:19:00].

To identify pain points within the Shopify ecosystem, one should:

• Get Hands-On: Deeply understand specific areas like supply chain, conversion rate optimization (CRO), email marketing, or after-sales [46:01:00].
• Niche Down: Go even deeper into specific niches within these broader categories, such as CRO for local websites or construction workers [50:07:00]. This creates a stronger “moat” against competition, especially from large companies like Google or even Shopify itself [50:36:00].

Product Philosophy: Costco vs. Louis Vuitton vs. Aesthetics

When creating a startup, one must decide its positioning:

• Zoho (Costco of Software): Offers a wide range of affordable solutions, like a supermarket [19:48:00].
• Superhuman (Louis Vuitton of Software): Provides a luxury, more expensive experience, focusing on exclusivity and status [14:02:00].
• Daniel Dalen (Aesthetics): Prioritizes design and user experience, making products intuitive and visually pleasing [20:20:00]. An aesthetic approach can attract attention and contribute significantly to perceived value [23:39:00].

For a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), prioritizing an aesthetic landing page to grab attention and clearly communicate the core value proposition is recommended [24:29:00]. The actual product’s aesthetics can be iterated on later, as the fundamental functionality (making the “car drive”) is paramount [25:12:00].

Building Philosophy: Freedom and Control

When building a business, especially embeddable ones, a key consideration is the desired level of freedom and control:

• Bootstrapping: Building a cash-flow-positive business that can sustain and grow itself by reinvesting capital, offering significant freedom and less pressure from external investors [54:47:00].
• Venture-Backed / Acquisition Target: Aiming to build a product that a larger company (like Shopify) might acquire [51:41:00]. This can lead to generational wealth and integration into larger companies, but it’s a high-stakes bet that requires perfect timing and alignment of “stars” [52:57:00].

Ultimately, the goal for some entrepreneurs is to build a successful, lean business that allows for personal happiness, financial independence, and the ability to work with trusted people, valuing freedom over merely chasing large-scale growth or external validation [56:00:00]. This often means minimizing recurring meetings and leveraging automation, potentially through AI, to clear one’s calendar [58:13:00].