~ 5 min

A service that finds fresh SMM trends on chosen topics on its own and emails the subscriber a ready digest. We advised the client not to build a big platform before testing demand and to cut the build scope from 40 to 7 days. The project was handed over 16 days after kickoff (10 June → 26 June 2025), and after an ad campaign the service gathered 560+ sign-ups and 79 paid subscriptions: the hypothesis was confirmed.

Imagine you are an SMM specialist and every morning you spend an hour working out what is trending. You scroll feeds, read Telegram channels, save links, and still fear missing something.

The client wanted to take that routine off people: you subscribe to topics, and AI collects the most important things and sends a short email. At first the project was conceived as a full platform with its own interface and database, about 40 days of development.

- 40 days of development before the first user. The budget is spent the whole time while demand is untested.
- Many “for growth” features: chat, a complex interface, scaling. None are needed to test the hypothesis.
- The risk of building a product nobody needs and finding out too late.

Build a minimum working product that answers one question: are people ready to subscribe to an AI trend digest. For that we needed:
- a landing page with a form for choosing topics, name and email;
- automatic account creation and a simple member area;
- storage of subscribers, topics and mailing status;
- AI generation of a digest for each topic;
- email delivery with no manual work.

We rebuilt the spec and kept only the key scenario: subscription → account → digest. The interface is on Tilda with its built-in member areas, data lives in SeaTable, and all logic is in n8n. Fresh trends are found by Perplexity, an AI that searches the internet in real time instead of answering from outdated knowledge. Emails go out through Sendpulse from a separate domain.

The screens below are illustrations of the key steps with demo data.

Tilda + Tilda Members — landing page, subscription form and member area without separate development.

n8n — all logic: sign-up, digest generation, mailing schedule.

SeaTable — the subscriber and topic database, clear to the client without a programmer.

Perplexity API — AI search for fresh trends on the internet.

Sendpulse SMTP — sending emails from a separate domain.

Redis — a cache for fast workflows.

HostVDS + Cloudron — the server and convenient service management.

Cloudflare — DNS and domain protection.

- All services run on the client’s server, and the domain and DNS work through Cloudflare.
- Service mailboxes are separated by purpose, which simplifies support and deliverability control.
- The project was handed over with a video guide: the client manages subscribers and mailing on their own.

After the ad campaign the MVP passed the hypothesis test (PoC): people sign up and pay for the subscription. That is exactly the result the project team wanted. The client got confirmed demand after 7 days of development instead of after a 40-day platform built blind.

- 560+ sign-ups.
- 79 paid subscriptions.
- PoC confirmed after the ad campaign.
- Build scope cut from 40 to 7 days.
- 16 days from kickoff to handover (10 June → 26 June 2025).

If you have an idea for a service or subscription, do not build a big platform right away. Describe it in the brief: we will help you pick one key scenario, assemble an MVP from ready blocks and hand control over to you. You can scale once demand is confirmed.