Here are two new business ideas inspired by a benchmarked SaaS model.
We hope these ideas help you build a more compelling and competitive SaaS business model.
- Benchmark Report: Daily UI Design Challenge for Designers
- Homepage: https://www.dailyui.co
- Analysis Summary: Daily UI offers a free 100-day design challenge program for designers to improve their skills through daily UI design prompts, building portfolios while connecting with a community of like-minded creatives.
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New Service Idea: DesignCrit / DesignGym
Derived from benchmarking insights and reimagined as two distinct SaaS opportunities.
1st idea : DesignCrit
A marketplace for premium design feedback from vetted industry experts
Overview
DesignCrit transforms the way designers receive feedback by creating a two-sided marketplace where designers can purchase expert critique from verified industry professionals. Unlike Daily UI that focuses on practice prompts, DesignCrit addresses the critical gap between creating designs and receiving meaningful, actionable feedback. The platform vets all critics to ensure quality, provides standardized critique frameworks, and allows design experts to monetize their knowledge. Designers can select feedback specialists based on industry, style preference, or expertise level, and critics can build reputation and consistent income. The platform becomes a valuable extension of the design community by providing structured, professional feedback that actually improves skills rather than just validating work.
- Problem:Designers struggle to get professional, constructive feedback beyond generic comments from peers or social media.
- Solution:Create a marketplace connecting designers seeking quality feedback with vetted industry experts who can provide detailed, professional critiques for a fee.
- Differentiation:Unlike free community feedback platforms, DesignCrit vets all critics, offers structured critique formats, and enables direct monetization for design professionals providing valuable feedback.
- Customer:
UI/UX designers at all career stages seeking professional feedback, and experienced design professionals looking to monetize their expertise. - Business Model:Platform takes a 15-20% commission from each feedback transaction, with additional revenue from subscription tiers offering enhanced features and priority matching.
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Who is the target customer?
▶ Junior and mid-level designers seeking career advancement through expert guidance
▶ Freelancers and independent designers without access to in-house feedback
▶ Design students looking for professional-level critique beyond classroom feedback
▶ Experienced designers and design leaders looking to monetize their expertise as critics
▶ Freelancers and independent designers without access to in-house feedback
▶ Design students looking for professional-level critique beyond classroom feedback
▶ Experienced designers and design leaders looking to monetize their expertise as critics
What is the core value proposition?
The design industry suffers from a severe feedback gap. While platforms like Daily UI help designers practice their craft, meaningful critique is scarce and often limited to superficial comments on social media or biased feedback from peers. This leaves designers stuck in skill plateaus without clear direction for improvement. DesignCrit solves this by connecting designers with vetted industry experts who provide detailed, actionable feedback for a fee. Designers receive professional-level critique that accelerates their growth, while experienced designers can monetize their knowledge. The structured feedback framework ensures critiques go beyond aesthetics to address usability, accessibility, business alignment, and technical feasibility—creating a valuable learning experience that directly improves career prospects and design quality.
How does the business model work?
• Critique Transactions: Platform takes 15-20% commission from each feedback session, with prices ranging from $29-299 based on critic experience level and critique depth
• Tiered Subscriptions: Monthly plans ($19-49) offering reduced commission rates, priority matching with top critics, and feedback storage/organization tools
• Enterprise Solutions: Custom packages for design teams and agencies needing regular external feedback, with volume pricing and dedicated expert pools
• Tiered Subscriptions: Monthly plans ($19-49) offering reduced commission rates, priority matching with top critics, and feedback storage/organization tools
• Enterprise Solutions: Custom packages for design teams and agencies needing regular external feedback, with volume pricing and dedicated expert pools
What makes this idea different?
Unlike free community feedback platforms or educational sites, DesignCrit creates a true marketplace where critique itself becomes a valuable service. The platform stands out through rigorous vetting of all critics—requiring portfolio reviews and sample critiques—ensuring feedback quality remains consistently high. The structured critique framework goes beyond subjective opinions to include measurable recommendations across multiple design dimensions. Critics build public reputation scores and specialization tags, helping designers find the perfect match for their specific needs. Most importantly, the platform directly addresses the monetization challenge for design professionals by creating a new revenue stream from their accumulated knowledge, not just their production work. This creates a sustainable ecosystem where feedback quality continually improves as the best critics are rewarded financially.
How can the business be implemented?
- Develop platform MVP with core functionality: critic profiles, submission system, payment processing, and feedback delivery interface
- Recruit initial pool of 20-30 vetted critics with diverse expertise through outreach to design leaders and influencers
- Create standardized critique templates and rubrics to ensure consistent quality across different feedback providers
- Launch beta with limited access, focusing on quality control and gathering user experience data
- Expand marketing through design communities, positioning as the professional alternative to social media feedback
What are the potential challenges?
• Quality Control: Maintaining consistent critique quality as the platform scales requires robust vetting processes and continuous monitoring of critic ratings
• Matching Supply/Demand: Balancing the marketplace may be challenging initially; address through flexible pricing models and incentives for critics during low-demand periods
• Building Trust: Designers must believe critiques are worth paying for; overcome with free sample critiques and transparency in critic qualifications and portfolios
• Matching Supply/Demand: Balancing the marketplace may be challenging initially; address through flexible pricing models and incentives for critics during low-demand periods
• Building Trust: Designers must believe critiques are worth paying for; overcome with free sample critiques and transparency in critic qualifications and portfolios
2nd idea : DesignGym
AI-powered design training platform with real-world client simulations
Overview
DesignGym elevates the concept of design practice from isolated UI challenges to comprehensive client project simulations. The platform creates realistic design scenarios complete with detailed client briefs, stakeholder personas, timeline pressures, and multiple feedback cycles—all powered by AI. Users navigate complete project lifecycles from initial brief to final delivery, honing not just their design skills but also client management, feedback integration, and deadline adherence. The simulations include realistic constraints like shifting requirements, budget limitations, and stakeholder conflicts that designers encounter in real jobs. Unlike Daily UI’s focus on discrete design elements, DesignGym builds the full professional skillset needed for career success, with AI-driven scenarios adapting to the user’s skill level and learning needs.
- Problem:Designers lack realistic practice environments with genuine client constraints, timeline pressure, and iterative feedback loops.
- Solution:Create an AI-driven platform that simulates complete client projects with realistic briefs, feedback, revisions, and timeline management.
- Differentiation:Unlike design challenges that focus on isolated UI elements, DesignGym creates complete client simulation experiences with AI-generated stakeholders providing realistic feedback and constraints.
- Customer:
UI/UX designers looking to build practical client management skills, design students preparing for professional work, and agencies training new hires. - Business Model:Subscription-based with tiered pricing ($19-79/month) based on simulation complexity, plus premium industry-specific simulation packs and team/enterprise licenses.
Who is the target customer?
▶ Early-career designers seeking practical client management experience before high-stakes real projects
▶ Design students transitioning from academic work to professional environments
▶ Career-switchers entering design from other fields needing accelerated practical training
▶ Design teams and agencies looking for standardized onboarding and skills assessment tools
▶ Design students transitioning from academic work to professional environments
▶ Career-switchers entering design from other fields needing accelerated practical training
▶ Design teams and agencies looking for standardized onboarding and skills assessment tools
What is the core value proposition?
The design industry faces a critical skills gap between creating good-looking mockups and successfully managing complete client projects. Current design challenges focus almost exclusively on isolated UI elements, but real-world success demands skills in requirement gathering, stakeholder management, feedback integration, and deadline navigation. DesignGym bridges this gap by providing AI-driven simulations that replicate entire project lifecycles. Users face realistic client scenarios where they must balance competing priorities, manage changing requirements, and adapt to feedback—all in a consequence-free environment that accelerates learning. This prepares designers for career success by developing the full spectrum of skills needed in professional contexts, reducing the steep learning curve traditionally faced when starting client work and helping employers identify candidates with proven project management abilities.
How does the business model work?
• Individual Subscriptions: Tiered monthly plans from $19 (basic simulations) to $79 (advanced enterprise scenarios with multiple stakeholders and complex requirements)
• Simulation Packs: Premium industry-specific simulation bundles (healthcare, fintech, e-commerce) available as add-ons to base subscription
• Team & Enterprise Licenses: Volume-based pricing for design teams, with customization options to align simulations with company processes and brand guidelines
• Simulation Packs: Premium industry-specific simulation bundles (healthcare, fintech, e-commerce) available as add-ons to base subscription
• Team & Enterprise Licenses: Volume-based pricing for design teams, with customization options to align simulations with company processes and brand guidelines
What makes this idea different?
Unlike traditional design challenges that focus on discrete UI elements, DesignGym creates immersive project-based learning through advanced AI simulation. The platform stands out through its emphasis on the complete designer skillset—not just visual design but client management, communication, and project planning. The AI-powered stakeholders adapt their feedback based on how users respond, creating dynamic scenarios that better reflect real-world interactions. The simulation engine tracks user performance across multiple dimensions (design quality, requirement adherence, communication clarity, timeline management) providing comprehensive skill development insights unavailable elsewhere. The platform’s ability to generate infinite variations of realistic client scenarios provides a depth of practice impossible in traditional education or generic challenges, while the safe environment allows designers to experiment with different approaches without real-world consequences.
How can the business be implemented?
- Develop the AI simulation engine capable of generating realistic client briefs, stakeholder personas, and dynamic feedback loops
- Create library of industry-specific templates and client scenarios based on real-world design projects
- Build designer interface with project management tools mirroring professional environments
- Implement performance analytics tracking multiple skill dimensions and providing personalized improvement recommendations
- Launch beta with design schools as initial partners to gather user data and refine the simulation experience
What are the potential challenges?
• AI Limitations: Creating truly realistic and nuanced stakeholder feedback requires sophisticated AI; mitigate with hybrid approach combining pre-written scenarios with generative elements
• Simulation Realism: Users may question simulation authenticity; address by involving industry veterans in scenario development and highlighting real-world validation
• Learning Curve: Complex simulations may overwhelm beginners; implement progressive difficulty and optional guided modes for new users
• Simulation Realism: Users may question simulation authenticity; address by involving industry veterans in scenario development and highlighting real-world validation
• Learning Curve: Complex simulations may overwhelm beginners; implement progressive difficulty and optional guided modes for new users
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