Solves

Product Write-up: Solves

The complete product narrative and positioning document.

PRODUCT WRITE-UP: Solves

You say the job. People post solves. You look.

Name: Solves (locked) Date: Saturday 29 August 2026 (America/Chicago) Sources: research files 01–05 in /workspace/research/, plus the live URLs they fetched on 28–29 Aug 2026. Thin evidence is labeled. No TAM. No invented volumes. No infra.

Domains owned (bought 29 Aug 2026, 1-year .com, receipt to the founder): solvesmyproblem.com (public URL — the sentence on the tin), getsolves.com (short), ssolves.com (also owned). Brand spoken as Solves. Note: solvemyproblem.com (no s) is a parked third-party name from 2002 and will catch typos.

This is a site to help people with a problem get it solved. People who know how to do this a little try and solve them.

Two kinds of people post problems at the same desk. Mary runs a shop, clinic, gym, church, contractor business, or solo practice. She is not technical. A stuck builder made something in Lovable, Bolt, Cursor, or a similar tool and cannot make it hold up or grow. They post that as a problem, same as the clinic. Other people post solves — a real try you can actually try: a link, a few pictures, a short “what I did.” If two people tried, you see both. Code, prompts, and repos sit in the back. Mary never has to see them. We do not become the shop that finishes the app for you.

The living web has hire desks, bounty boards, idea lists, launch galleries, app directories, template stores, agent markets, and done-for-you shops. It does not have this join. Two of the four must-hit “problem” URLs are already dead. The main risk is an empty desk. The first version is a seeded library of problems with our own solves, useful before Mary arrives.

1. Category map

Who plays in which lane, as of 28–29 Aug 2026. Status labels come from the source files.

Hire a person. Client posts → one hire → private work → a rating. Upwork (alive): 763,000 active clients Q2 2026; “Vibe Coders” tile; CEO 17 Aug 2026 names “turn my vibe-coded concept into a production website” (02). Fiverr (alive, shrinking): 2.7M annual buyers as of 30 Jun 2026 (−21.9% YoY); dense Lovable / Bolt / Cursor / Replit / v0 gig cluster (02). Toptal (alive): ~3% pass, no public problems (02).

Issue bounties. GitHub issue + purse → one (or split) PR. Gitcoin native bounties — dead / sunset (must-hit). gitcoin.co handed bounties to Buidlbox. Historical take 10% on the funder (2019). Algora (alive, recruiting-first): homepage is hiring; org pages still pay (ProjectDiscovery 2 open / $35,625 awarded; Coolify 1 open / $1,402, fetched 28 Aug 2026). Fee unpublished — 9% vs 19% vs ~20%+Stripe, thin (02). BountyHub (alive, thin): official 10% creator / 0% hunter; catalog empty to a bot (02). Collaborators.build (alive / thin / experimental): Solana/USDC, merge = pay, no published take-rate (02). Replit Bounties — dead (must-hit). Launch 15 Nov 2022: plain-language idea + running Repl, still 1:1 hire. Masad Feb 2025: the Agent should own the loop. HN-reported shutdown 6 Sep 2025; users pointed to Contra. No official postmortem (02).

Problem boards. problemhunt.net — dead (must-hit). NXDOMAIN 29 Aug 2026; stale index still claims 150+ problems / 50+ developers / $50K+ budgets; /problems showed “Loading opportunities…” — thin evidence a catalog ever rendered. Not problemhunt.pro or getproblemhunt.com (01, 03). theagenthub.dev — dead (must-hit). Registered 2 Jul 2025, expired 2 Jul 2026, redemption as of 13 Aug 2026. No indexed product. Do not infer from other AgentHubs (01). problemhunt.pro (alive): dated posts through 15 May 2026; Mary-shaped template wrapped as “startup ideas” / “3,000 developers” (thin). $99 Telegram packs. No multi-solve library (01). Probletunity (alive): Problem Wall + exclusive “claim it.” Founding 100 at $27/mo (03, 04). Startup Maya (alive, MVP): problem wall → AI strategies for one founder. $0 / $9.5 / $49.5 (01).

Idea databases. Demand fuel, almost never a shipped try. IdeasAI (alive): ~49.7k ideas, 89,785 newsletter subs 28 Aug 2026 (03, 04). Ideabrowser (alive): 1,889 researched ideas; third-party prices conflict — thin (03, 04). BID (alive): lifetime $129; “Build with AI” dumps a prompt into a tool and stops (04). YC RFS (alive): Fall 2026 essays; no tries (03, 04). IH Ideas DB (alive): profitable-company catalog, not unsolved pain (03).

Launch galleries. Product Hunt (alive): launch free; money is ads (self-serve CPM never above $35; managed from $10,000). /ship is 404 (03). Indie Hackers (alive, smaller than 2018–2020): forum, Build Board, IH+ $198/yr (03).

Shipped-app galleries. Unit is a shipped product, not a problem. VibeKing (alive): 2,605 products, 2,406 live, API 29 Aug 2026 (01). One’s Vibe (alive): 9,182 projects, 9,121 live (03). Made with Lovable (alive): 508+ projects, paid boost, tool-locked (03). Made with Bolt (alive): same pattern (03). vibcod.dev (alive, thin): 15 projects, 14 builders; Vibe Awards freeze 1 Sep 2026 (01). Vibedonalds (alive): 650 entries 29 Aug 2026 (01). Valley of AI / Versus (alive experiment, thin): only live two-implementation UI found; builders are models; 0 votes (03).

Template markets. Bolt templates (alive, ~4 Aug 2026): free working apps, no creator payout yet (04). v0 templates (alive): community gallery; thin rev-share evidence (04). Framer Marketplace (alive): skins $39–$129; ancestor, not competitor (04). Tempalix (live, thin): third-party prompt directory (04).

Agent markets. Sell a worker, not a solve. OmniVibe (alive, early, PH ~Aug 2026): thin take-rate (04). CrewAI Marketplace (alive inside Enterprise): public page is mostly a submit form (04). GPT Store (mature, cooling): personal publishing restricted 16 Aug 2026 (04). Agensi (alive): 2,000+ skills / 70% creator share — some claims thin (04). Agent.ai retiring 22 Aug 2026 into HubSpot (04).

Goods / done-for-you. VibeVendors (alive, thin): 7 first-party SKUs, all 0 sales, “No requests yet,” 10% fee, “last 25%” pitch. Hacker language only (01). Octave (live): MVPs typically from £8,000 (04). Makeitfuture (live): build + Lovable/Bolt rescue (04). Productera (live): throws away the try, rebuilds, 4–12 weeks (04). Fiverr vibe gigs (live, crowded): indexed snippets show debug ~€18–£48, MVP ~€137–£357, fuller ~€319–£1,190 — do not generalize (02, 04).

Contests / Q&A. Many solves are native; the library dies when judging ends. Devpost (alive): one brief, many ships; time-boxed; no try #47 next month (04). VibeCode Arena (alive): same-prompt comparison; FIFA 2026 showdown; toy challenges, not Mary’s problem (01). Buildspace (alive): S5 Jun–Jul 2026 (04). Supabase hacks (alive): brief is “use our DB” (04). Stack Overflow (alive, public Q&A collapsing): July 2026 1,490 questions (~48/day) vs 176,610 in July 2014 (Ground Truth API). 2026 robots.txt is Disallow: / (03, 05). GitHub Issues: repo-scoped, unusable as a public library for non-devs (03).

Dead must-hits (keep these on the wall). (1) problemhunt.net — dropped; closest form (need/want/help + budget) and it is gone. (2) theagenthub.dev — expired after twelve months; nothing verifiable. (3) Replit Bounties — closest analog (plain-language idea + running Repl) collapsed to 1:1 hire, then the Agent ate the loop. (4) Gitcoin native bounties — sunset; grants won.

2. Feature comparison

Short cells. “Dead” = gone. “Partial” = exists in a different shape than we need. “Thin” = the surface exists; evidence of use is weak.

Solves is the product we recommend. It is not a live competitor, so it is not a row here.

Product Problem intake Multi-solution library Running demo Source / prompt Payments Reputation Hosting Community Mary-language
Upwork Partial No No No Yes Yes No Partial Mixed
Fiverr No No No No Yes Yes No Partial Mixed
Toptal No No No No Yes Yes No No No
Gitcoin / Buidlbox Dead Dead No Partial Dead Partial No Partial No
Algora No Partial No Partial Yes Partial No Partial No
BountyHub No No No Partial Yes Partial No Thin No
Collaborators.build No No No Partial Thin Thin No Thin No
Replit Bounties Partial No Yes Partial Dead Partial Dead Dead Mixed
Product Hunt No No Partial No Ads Yes No Yes No
Indie Hackers Partial No No No Yes Partial No Yes No
Stack Overflow Partial Yes No Partial No Yes No Yes No
GitHub Issues Partial Partial No Partial No Partial No Per-repo No
problemhunt.net Dead Dead Dead Dead Dead Dead Dead Dead Dead
problemhunt.pro Yes No No No Partial No No Telegram Mixed
theagenthub.dev Dead Dead Dead Dead Dead Dead Dead Dead Dead
VibeVendors Partial No No Partial Yes Thin No Discord No
VibeKing No No Partial No Thin Yes No Partial No
One’s Vibe No No Partial No No Yes No Partial No
Made with Lovable No No Partial No Partial Partial No Partial No
VibeCode Arena Partial Yes Yes Yes Prizes Yes Partial Yes No
IdeasAI No No No No No Vote No Partial No
Ideabrowser Partial No No No Yes No No No No
BID Partial No No Partial Yes No No No No
YC RFS Partial No No No No No No No No
Devpost Partial Yes Partial Partial Prizes Yes No Yes No
OmniVibe Partial Partial Partial No Credits Partial Yes Partial No
Bolt / v0 templates No No Yes Partial No Partial No Partial No
Probletunity Yes No Thin Thin Yes Partial No Partial No

Mary-language means a shop, clinic, gym, church, or contractor can describe the problem in their own words and read the answers without a glossary. Nobody alive says yes. problemhunt.pro is the closest living intake and still wraps the problem as a startup idea. Upwork and Fiverr will take Mary’s money if she learns to write a brief; they will not show her two working tries. VibeCode Arena and Devpost are the only rows with a real multi-solve mechanic, and both spend it on toy or time-boxed briefs.

3. Gap analysis

What is actually missing

The locked product is: a problem in plain words → people post solves you can try → if two people tried, you see both. A solve is a link, a few pictures, and a short “what I did.” Code stays in the back.

As of 28 Aug 2026 that join does not exist (01 gap list; 03 headline; 04 cross-lane table). Pieces sit in different lanes: problem object on idea databases and thin boards; many-try comparison on contests and arenas (time-boxed or toy); starters on template stores; finishing labor on done-for-you shops and Fiverr, private and 1:1; shipped-app discovery on VibeKing / One’s Vibe / Product Hunt.

Nobody hosts “what I did + a link + a few pictures” as the first-class bundle on one operator problem. vibcod.dev is furthest on prompt and tip, but per project, not per Mary problem. VibeKing’s build_story field was null on the live API sample (01). Live copy says “indie coders,” “BYOK,” “MCP.” Nobody’s homepage is “tell us what your front desk cannot do.” problemhunt.net would have been the closest form and it is dead. problemhunt.pro wraps prose jobs as startup ideas (01).

The stuck-builder problem is also missing as a library object. Upwork already sells “turn my vibe-coded concept into a production website” as a 1:1 hire (Hayden Brown, Q2 2026 call, 02). Makeitfuture and Productera sell rescue in private (04). Nobody keeps those tries public next to the same problem.

What just feels missing (false gaps)

“We need both sides busy on day one.” False. A seeded library is useful before Mary posts. VibeVendors launched with 7 first-party SKUs, every one 0 sales, and “No requests yet” (01). Content is the inventory.

“Builders need an editor.” False, and dangerous. Replit Bounties died once the host’s Agent could “describe a problem → get a running app” (02). Link the demo. Do not become the editor.

“We need bounties to start.” False. Algora shows 0–2 open bounties. BountyHub’s catalog is thin. Gitcoin sunset native bounties. Replit shut theirs (02).

“We need to host other people’s running apps.” False for v1, and a liability later. Link demos.

“Mary needs to learn the tools.” False. She describes the problem. She clicks a link. She looks at pictures.

“The product is posting code.” False. If the homepage or the post form leads with “paste your repo,” Mary is gone and we have built a hacker club.

4. Sharp positioning

One sentence: You say the problem like you’d tell a neighbor. People who know how to do this a little post solves you can try. You look.

That sentence should work for a 20-year-old and a 70-year-old. No glossary. A solve means something you can click or picture. Nobody is asked to open a coding tool or join a club.

Not for: people who want the next Uber, or any generic “I have an app idea”; students who need homework done; founders shopping idea lists (IdeasAI, Ideabrowser, BID, YC RFS); people who want to hire one person in private (Upwork, Fiverr, Toptal, a done-for-you shop); stuck builders who want us to finish the app (they may post the problem; we are not the rescue shop); people who want an editor, an agent runtime, or a template store; maintainers who want a GitHub issue closed for a purse (Algora, BountyHub); makers who want an upvote launch (Product Hunt, VibeKing).

v1 takes only the 15 seeded jobs in §7 (Excel / PDF / leftover-ops), plus a stuck-builder problem of the same shape (I built this; it will not hold up). Nothing else. The old “five jobs” line is retired. The 15 are the list.

5. Monetization options (ranked)

Do not lock a model. Map the options. Sourced take-rates are from 02. Company take-rates (Upwork 19.8%, Fiverr 28.0%) are revenue ÷ GSV/GMV — they are not “the freelancer cut.”

Rank Option Bucket Why this slot Sourced analog
1 Featured problems (pin / highlight a real problem) Launch-now (once a handful exist; can start complimentary) Does not require a cleared transaction. Product Hunt’s business is ads on a free launch, not a take on the product. PH self-serve CPM, never above $35; managed/sponsor from $10,000 (03)
2 Promo to tool companies (Cursor, Lovable, Bolt, v0, Square, Stripe on solve or compare pages) Launch-now / early Phase 2 They already pay for Devpost briefs and PH placements. A standing “invoice on a phone” page beats a 10-day hackathon that freezes. Devpost sponsor; PH sponsor (03, 04)
3 Single sponsored contest with one tool company After some use (Phase 2, once 8–12 problems are live) Steals Devpost’s mechanic once, then keeps the solves on the problem page. Do not become a contest platform. Devpost; VibeCode Arena prizes (01, 04)
4 Builder profiles (later: paid “verified” or featured) After some use (≥3 solves with a real try) Empty profiles are SEO trash (05). Charge only when the profile is a portfolio of solves on real problems. VibeKing paid_dofollow (thin); PH badge (01, 03)
5 Subscriptions for problem owners After some use (Mary is real and returning) A shop that posts more than one problem, or wants a private one, might pay. Do not charge Mary to read solves. Maya $0 / $9.5 / $49.5 (01); Canny Pro $79/mo for a vendor board (03)
6 Take-rate on optional bounties After some use (Phase 3; only if a problem already has solves and someone wants to fund another) Bounty fill is the hard problem (02). Charge the funder, not the hunter. Do not copy Upwork. See take-rate card below
7 Ads Avoid early (revisit only with real Mary traffic) PH and IH run ads because they have a daily habit. Twelve pages cannot. Early ads train Mary that this is a content farm. PH ads; IH newsletter $749–$1,299 on Passionfroot (03)
8 “We build the winning solve” Avoid (do not operate) Services trap. Productera and Makeitfuture already sell rescue (04). Partner in Phase 3 if at all. Productera, Makeitfuture, Octave (04)

Sourced take-rates (02): BountyHub 10% creator / 0% hunter (official). Gitcoin historical 10% on funder (2019; sunset). Upwork talent 0–15% per contract (official help; examples at 10%) + client 5% Basic / 10% Business Plus; company take 19.8% Q2 2026 (rev $191.7M / GSV $966.4M). Fiverr seller 20% official (keeps 80%, including tips); buyer 5.5% + $3.50 under $200 (official help, thin live-fetch); company take 28.0% TTM to 30 Jun 2026. Algora fee unpublished (9 / 19 / ~20%+Stripe — thin). Replit Cycles cut unpublished. Collaborators unpublished.

Recommended sequence, not a locked model: (1) Launch the library free. No payments in the first version. (2) Phase 2: featured problems (complimentary at first) plus one tool-company promo or one sponsored contest. (3) Phase 3: optional bounty on problems that already have ≥2 solves, funder-side take in the 10% neighborhood if you charge at all. Optional “harden the winner” partner, not an in-house shop. (4) Never: a 1:1 hire desk, ads on empty pages, or “we’ll build it for you.”

6. Recommended product: Solves

Public name: Solves.

URLs we own: solvesmyproblem.com is the public address. getsolves.com is the short one. ssolves.com is also ours. Point all three at the same site when it exists. Do not treat any other name as ours.

The one-liner, everywhere Mary looks: You say the job. People post solves. You look.

The system (this is the product)

The 15 jobs are seed inventory so the desk is not empty. They are not the product. The product is the system:

  1. Easy for any user. A 20-year-old and a 70-year-old both get it. No glossary.
  2. Clear purpose. People with a problem get it solved. People who know how to do this a little try.
  3. Easy UI. Paper. One box. English buttons.
  4. Sign in is easy. Google or GitHub. That creates a user. No extra form if we can avoid it.
  5. A signed-in user can create a problem. They type it like a neighbor. AI helps refine it into a clear letter (what “done” looks like, what they already tried) without turning it into a 12-field form and without “vibe” language. Uber-clones, homework, and “I have an app idea” get a polite no.
  6. A signed-in user can post a solve (link, pictures, what I did). Code stays in the back.
  7. Anyone can read with no account.

Problem. A standing, public page. Written the way you’d tell a neighbor. Who has it (shop / clinic / gym / church / contractor / solo practice — or a stuck builder), what “done” looks like, what they already tried, what they cannot change. In-scope v1 only. It does not expire into a private contract.

Solve. Attached to one Problem. A real try you can actually try: a link, a few pictures, a short “what I did.” Code, prompts, and repos are optional and sit in the back. Mary never has to open that drawer. Without those, it is a draft, not a page. If two people tried, you see both. The page shows them in plain words: what you click, what you still do by hand, what it costs, what data leaves the building. Not a leaderboard.

Two posters, same desk. Mary writes one of the 15 jobs in her words. She clicks links and looks at pictures. She is not asked for a GitHub account. The stuck builder writes “I built this in Lovable / Bolt / Cursor and it will not hold up” as a Problem, same form. Other people may post solves. We do not take the work in-house. We do not sell “we’ll finish it.”

In the first version Mary may not even post. Seeded problems are already there. When posting opens (Phase 2), the form matches the seeded pages.

What a solver sees. The same Problem, plus “post a solve.” They try in whatever they already use. Tool names, prompts, and repos live on the Solve, in the back — never on the homepage, never above the fold on the Problem.

What we will not build. An editor. A hosted runtime. Escrow. A 1:1 hire flow. An idea feed. An upvote launch. A template shelf. An agent store. A contest platform. A rescue shop. A “post your code” product.

Design: paper, plus one agent box

The site should feel like a sheet of paper on a desk, not a SaaS dashboard. Light, warm off-white. Ink-colored type. One type family. Lots of air. A Problem page is a letter. A Solve is a short note clipped to that letter. Two solves sit next to each other like two notes. No card stacks, no sidebar maze, no purple “AI” glow, no robot mascot.

The modern-agent piece is one box: What’s the problem? It should feel like telling a person, the way a chat composer does, not like a 12-field form. That is the only “agent UI” on the homepage. Everything after that is the paper.

The box is how you start a problem. If you are signed in, AI helps refine it, then you publish. If you are not signed in, the box still works as a draft: it asks you to sign in with Google or GitHub to save and publish. It can also show nearby seeded problems so the desk never feels empty.

Approachable for a 70-year-old and a 20-year-old:

  • Large type. Words on buttons are English (“See the tries,” “Post a solve”), not “Ship,” “Deploy,” or “Prompt.”
  • Default is light paper. Dark mode can wait.
  • No glossary. No “vibe” on the chrome.
  • A solve Mary can try is a link and pictures on the paper, not a terminal.

If it looks like Linear-for-hackers or a crypto landing page, it is wrong. If it looks like a form from the county clerk, it is also wrong. A clean letter with one question at the top is right.

API first

The site is one client of Solves. The product is the objects: Problem and Solve. Other systems must be able to connect without waiting on our UI.

From day one (small, public, versioned):

  • Read: anyone. List problems, get one problem with its solves, get one solve. No account.
  • Write: a signed-in user (Google or GitHub). Create a problem, create a solve. A founder key can still seed.
  • Ping / webhook / Zapier / MCP: after the site works. Do not block the first site on them.

What “connect” means, in order:

  1. The website is a client of the same API. SSO creates a user. That user can write.
  2. A founder script can still seed example problems so the desk is not empty.
  3. Later: Zapier/Make, a leftover-thread bot, a vibe tool, or MCP can post using the same objects.

We do not design tables, hosts, or field lists here. We do not become an integration platform. If the API cannot do it, the page should not do it either.

7. MVP

The smallest test: a visitor can open a plain-language problem and look at at least two solves they can actually try, without anyone having posted that day.

Three steps only:

  1. Write the problem like you’d tell a neighbor.
  2. Someone picks it and tries in whatever they already use.
  3. They post a solve you can try. If two people tried, you see both.

Getting started with no crowd

Do not need Mary and solvers on day one. The content is the inventory.

  1. Seed the 15 common jobs (Excel / PDF / leftover-ops). Write them in Mary’s language. A later bot can watch Square, QuickBooks Community, ContractorTalk, and “PDF to Excel” threads and only add a problem if it matches this list. Do not invent Uber-clone problems.

    1. A stack of vendor PDF invoices into one Excel, then QuickBooks.
    2. Line items off those invoices, not just the total.
    3. Every vendor’s PDF looks different, so a template per vendor dies.
    4. Receipt photos and scans into a tax sheet.
    5. Bank or card statement PDF into Excel.
    6. A quote PDF into a bid sheet.
    7. Contractor plan PDFs into a takeoff spreadsheet, without Bluebeam.
    8. A PDF table with merged cells that will not copy into Excel.
    9. Two ugly Excels (old list, new list) merged without wrecking either.
    10. A Square or QuickBooks export that comes out unusable and needs a clean sheet.
    11. The same visit or job sitting in email, a spreadsheet, and a calendar.
    12. Customer pays a card on an invoice, at the counter, or on a phone.
    13. Still texting customers one by one and losing the thread (aftercare, rebooking).
    14. A price list or policy binder into answers that do not make up a number.
    15. A handwritten work order or job ticket, photographed, into a row in the sheet.

    First solves start on 1, 2, 7, and 12.

  2. Attach first-party solves so week one is already a library. Must-have: jobs 1, 2, 7, and 12 each have at least two real tries (so a visitor can compare). Other seeded jobs may launch with one try or with “no try yet.” The founder (or a named person) makes those demos. We link them. We do not host them.

  3. Invite a handful of people to add solve #2 or #3 on problems that already have one. Named people, not a public blast (04).

  4. Anyone signed in can post a problem. Seeded examples stay so the first visitor is not looking at a blank desk. AI refine is part of create, not a later add-on.

Out of the first version

No payments. No hosting of other people’s apps. No reputation graph. No bounty. No solver leaderboard. No search-as-a-product. No profiles worth indexing. No “claim this problem.” No open public posting. No “paste your repo” as the main action.

What gets indexed

From 05 (PH/GitHub robots.txt 29 Aug 2026): index the artifact, not search or “my stuff.”

  • Index: Problem pages; Solve pages that have a “what I did” and at least a link or pictures; compare views only at ≥2 solves; Guides that seed a problem.
  • Noindex: profiles; search and filter querystrings; thin tags; logged-in chrome; prompt-only or repo-only URLs detached from a problem.
  • Industry hubs wait until ≥3 real problems live in that hub.
  • Homepage is paper: one question box, recent problems, how it works in one short paragraph, two or three examples. Not a manifesto. Not the word “vibe.” Not a glossary.

If the first version is itself built in a vibe tool, problem and solve pages need real HTML on first paint (05). The other product constraint: the same Problem and Solve objects are available over a small public API. No schemas in this doc.

8. Phase 2 / 3 (product only)

Phase 2 — Mary arrives

  • Mary can post a Problem. Same shape as the seeded pages. The stuck builder uses the same form. Reject (or quietly hold) Uber-clones, homework, generic app ideas.
  • Light solver profiles. A name, a link, the solves they posted. Noindex until ≥3 solves with a real try. Not a freelance storefront.
  • Featured problems. Editorial at first. Then, if a tool company or a trade group wants a problem highlighted, that is the first money.
  • One sponsored contest, at most. One tool company, one in-scope problem, a deadline. Solves stay on the Problem page after judging.
  • Outbound to leftover threads. Named rooms and rules are in §9. Still no homepage blasts.
  • Still no bounty, no hosting, no 1:1 hire, no “we’ll build the winner,” no rescue shop.

Phase 3 — optional rails, with hard stops

  • Optional bounty on a Problem that already has ≥2 solves, if someone wants to fund another try. Funder-side take if any, in the 10% neighborhood (BountyHub official; Gitcoin historical). The Problem remains a library. If fill is thin — and 02 says it will be — do not pivot around it.
  • Optional “harden the winning solve” partner. Name a Productera / Makeitfuture-class shop. Do not operate it. The desk introduces; the shop invoices; the library keeps the public solve.
  • Optional hosted demos, only with a hard liability note: you are now running other people’s apps that touch payments, patient-adjacent data, church directories, contractor plans. Default remains “link the demo.” Hosting is later, optional, and expensive — not a first-version promise.

9. Distribution

No keyword volumes here are verified from Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or Semrush. Intent only (05). The public name is Solves. The public URL is solvesmyproblem.com. Short URL: getsolves.com. Also owned: ssolves.com.

Domains we own (29 Aug 2026)

Name Role
solvesmyproblem.com Public URL. The sentence. What we print.
getsolves.com Short. Ads, stickers, “go to getsolves.”
ssolves.com Also owned. Same site.

Receipt: 1-year .com each, recurring, emailed to the founder. solvemyproblem.com (no s) is not ours — parked since 2002. People will drop the s. Put a note on our site later if that becomes a real leak. Do not buy expired names with spam history to “fix” it.

Keyword clusters (unverified as volume)

A — Mary demand (homepage voice).

  • Card on an invoice / counter / phone. She says “take credit card payments on invoices,” “tap to pay on my iPhone.” SERP is Square vs Stripe and 2026 listicles. Square Community already holds leftover jobs Square will not build. (05)
  • Stack of PDFs → data. “Get line items out of a PDF into Excel,” “contractor takeoff from a PDF plan.” SERP: DocuClipper, Parseur, PlanSwift, ContractorTalk. (05)
  • Email + spreadsheet + calendar linked. Fragmented across Monday / ClickUp / Zapier / Jobber. Strongest compare-solves cluster. She does not want another login. (05)
  • Private knowledge from a price list / policies / past jobs. Custom GPT how-tos, NotebookLM. Nobody shows competing solves against the same clinic list or church binder. (05)
  • Still texting customers one by one. Salesmsg / SimpleTexting / Square Marketing sell broadcasts. Her pain is losing the thread on a personal phone. (05)

Adjacent phrases: “is there an app for…”, “how do I take card payments without a website”, “QuickBooks invoice pay now”, “get Excel from a PDF without typing”, “stop using my personal phone for customers.” Do not chase “someone should build this” as homepage SEO — those attract builders and idea-tourists (05).

B — Builder supply (never homepage H1). “what is vibe coding 2026”, “built with Cursor / Lovable / Bolt.” SERP is definition slop. The durable builder URL is “two solves at Mary’s invoice-on-a-phone problem — here is what they did.” Prompts, if shown, stay in the back. (05)

Indexable vs noindex

Restated from §7 / 05: index Problems, solves with a real try, compare views at ≥2, Guides that seed a problem. Noindex profiles, search, thin tags, detached prompts or repos, logged-in chrome. Industry hubs only after ≥3 real problems.

First posts (map to the 15)

Every post creates or attaches to a Problem. The post is distribution; the Problem is inventory. (05) Write these first. They are not a second list.

  1. Job 12 — card on an invoice / counter / phone
  2. Job 1 — Friday stack of vendor PDFs into Excel / QuickBooks
  3. Job 2 — line items, not just the total
  4. Job 7 — contractor plan PDF takeoff, without Bluebeam
  5. Job 13 — gym / shop texts from a personal phone
  6. Job 11 — clinic: same visit in email, sheet, and calendar
  7. Job 14 — church / shop binder: answers that do not make up a number
  8. One guide: “Post the problem as you would tell a neighbor,” pointing at job 12. Only meta post.

Mary-language title and lede. Builder how-to under the solve, in the back. Each post invites one more solve, not a waitlist.

Off-site

Mary places (listen and answer; do not launch): Square Community — leftover jobs; help them write the problem; invite to Solves only if they want. Toast Community — operators only; do not prospect unless someone on the team is a Toast seller. QuickBooks Community — link a problem only when the solve exports into QB. ContractorTalk — process posts live; software pitches die; “171k members” unverified; see the live takeoff thread. Dentaltown Practice Management — never a product launch. ChurchAdmin (624 members / 1,950 topics on the fetched page) — read a month first; problem #4 lives here. ChurchTechToday — one story after two solves, not a launch email. Gym / salon Facebook — Salon Owners Support Network and Salon Owners Support Group URLs resolve; gym-owner groups are members-only; no invented member counts. Nextdoor Business — neighbor-shaped answers only. r/smallbusiness — demand-side questions; ~650k unverified; skip r/Entrepreneur for v1.

Builder places (comparison artifacts, not “we launched”): X — @karpathy, @levelsio, @cursor_ai, @lovable_dev, @boltdotnew (x.com 403 from the research box), @swyx, @simonw, @marc_louvion, @tdinh_me, @dannypostmaa, @IndieHackers. 15–45s clip. Problem in the first line. Prompts stay on the solve, backstage (05). Reddit — r/vibecoding, r/cursor, r/lovable, r/boltnewbuilders, r/ChatGPTCoding, r/SideProject, r/SomebodyMakeThis, r/alphaandbetausers (when two solves exist), r/IWantToLearn (no promo). Subscriber counts unverified. No vote rings. No five-sub launch day (05). Indie Hackers — add a Product once problems + solves exist; one Building discussion; one Launch post (03, 05). Newsletters — Lenny’s is selective (“promoting your product is a stated turn-off”), not month one; Superhuman / TLDR are ads later; The Art of Vibe Coding (Nathan Onn, issue #65 dated 28 Aug 2026) and Vibe Coding Weekly (~6k on page) — one comparison email; Simon Willison — a sharp solve, not a pitch (05).

How content becomes inventory

A post is a Problem page, a compare view, or a Guide that points at a Problem. If it does not create or attach to a Problem, do not ship it in v1. SEO work and empty-desk work are the same work.

What not to do

AI slop farm. Expired domains with spam history. Upvote rings. Homepage “vibe.” Uber-clone / homework / “I have an app idea” SEO. Spray-posting the same launch to Mary rooms and builder rooms. Indexing search, empty tags, empty profiles. Treating Square / Toast / Dentaltown / ChurchAdmin as launch channels. Leading with “post your code.” (05)

10. Risks and anti-goals

An empty desk is the main risk. VibeVendors launched 7 first-party products, 0 sales, “No requests yet.” Problem boards die when the domain drops (problemhunt.net) or expire after a year with nothing indexed (theagenthub.dev). Mitigation: seed problems, attach our own solves, useful before Mary arrives. If week four has twelve pages and zero second solves, invite named people to solve #2. Do not add bounties.

Mary never shows; only builders show. Then the desk becomes an app gallery. Homepage voice stays Mary. Builder language stays on Solves, in the back. First distribution is Square leftover threads and ContractorTalk, not r/vibecoding.

Only Mary shows; no solves. Then it is problemhunt.pro. Do not open Mary posting until seeded problems already have two solves.

Making “post code” the product. If the form or the homepage leads with repo / prompt / stack, Mary leaves and older people never arrive. A solve is a link, pictures, and “what I did.”

Speaking young-hacker and losing older Mary. If the homepage says “vibe,” “ship,” “MCP,” or “build in public,” a 70-year-old clinic owner is gone — and so is a 20-year-old who just wanted help, not a club. Help-desk English is a constraint. Younger and older. No glossary.

Becoming a scale / rescue shop for stuck vibe-coders. They may post a problem. Upwork already sells the 1:1 finish (02). Makeitfuture and Productera already sell the private rescue (04). If we take that work in-house, the library starves. Same desk, not a finishing service.

Becoming Upwork. 2026 incumbents already absorb “turn my vibe-coded concept into a production website” (Hayden Brown, Q2 2026 call, 02). A 19.8–28% take-rate machine will win a 1:1 fight. No private contracts. No “hire this person” as a primary button.

Becoming Devpost / an idea list / an app gallery. One sponsored contest in Phase 2 is a distribution event. IdeasAI, Ideabrowser, BID, YC RFS already occupy “what should I build.” VibeKing has 2,605 products; One’s Vibe has 9,182. The unit is the Problem.

Hosting liability. Linking a demo is a pointer. Hosting it is operating someone else’s software (payments, clinic-adjacent data, church directories, contractor plans). Phase 3 and optional, or never.

Replit Bounties / ProblemHunt.net. Closest analog died when the Agent owned the loop; no official postmortem (02). Closest form dropped its domain; thin evidence a catalog ever rendered. Do not build this inside an editor. Do not ship the form before the library.

“We build the winner” becomes the company. Partner, don’t operate (04).

Homework / Uber spam. Out of scope is a moderation policy. The intake rejects them.

Name history. We briefly used thejobdesk as a working title; it is taken. Drop it. The public name is Solves. Public URL is solvesmyproblem.com. We also own getsolves.com and ssolves.com.

11. Open questions

The name is Solves (locked). Domains are bought: solvesmyproblem.com, getsolves.com, ssolves.com. Design is locked: paper UI, one agent-like box, approachable. Product is API-first (Problem and Solve). No domain or look-and-feel decision left.

These are the founder’s remaining calls. Everything else in this document is a recommendation.

  1. Who seeds the first solves? The first version assumes the founder (or a named person) ships the must-have solves: two real tries each on jobs 1, 2, 7, and 12. If the founder will not make those demos, name a different author before build starts.

  2. Seed-only posting, or open the mail slot in the first version? Recommendation: seed-only. Open posting in Phase 2, after lurkers can already compare. Opening the mail slot on day one is how you get homework, Uber-clones, and an empty compare page.

  3. Bounty in Phase 2 or Phase 3? Recommendation: Phase 3, and optional. Phase 2 money is featured problems and one tool-company promo. If you charge, charge the funder, about 10%, not the hunter.

  4. Partner a rescue shop, or stay library-only? Recommendation: library-only through Phase 2. If Phase 3 needs a “harden this” door, name a partner. Do not staff it. The stuck builder posts a problem; we do not become their rescue shop.

  5. Geography. US local-service Mary (Square, Toast, ContractorTalk, Dentaltown, ChurchAdmin, gym / salon Facebook, Nextdoor) is where the first problems and the first rooms are. Broader English-speaking later. Do not seed “VC startups need customer research” problems to look global — that is problemhunt.pro’s gravity.

A collaborator getting this tomorrow should be able to start the 15 Problem pages and the must-have solves. The decision that blocks that start is who writes the first solves. Seed-only is the recommendation for MVP. The rest can wait.

End of write-up. Sources: research files 01–05, dated 28–29 Aug 2026 (America/Chicago). No TAM. No invented volumes. No infra. Name: Solves. URLs: solvesmyproblem.com, getsolves.com, ssolves.com.

12. Handoff — the system, then inventory

If this section and an earlier section disagree, this section wins. Founder correction 29 Aug 2026, 1:27 AM CT: stop obsessing over the job list. Focus on the system.

The system (must exist)

  • Easy to understand for any user
  • Clear purpose
  • Easy paper UI
  • SSO: Google and GitHub. Sign in creates a user. Easy, not a project.
  • Create a problem while signed in
  • Refine with AI until it reads like a neighbor said it
  • Post a solve while signed in
  • Read with no account

What we have in this doc vs what we just added

Piece Had it? Now
Purpose / one-liner Yes Keep
Paper UI + one box Yes Keep. Box now starts a problem, not only a match.
API: Problem, Solve Yes Keep. Add User (from SSO only).
Seed 15 jobs Yes, over-weighted Inventory. Optional examples so the desk is not empty.
SSO / accounts No. Doc said the opposite. Must. Google + GitHub.
User creates a problem No. Seed-only. Must.
AI refine Nothing. Must. One conversation, not a form.
Compare / no hire / no host Yes Keep

Pages

  1. Home — paper, one box, how it works, a few example problems (seeded).
  2. Sign in — Google or GitHub. That is the whole page if we even need one.
  3. New / refine problem — you talk, AI tightens the letter, you publish. Rejects Uber / homework / generic app idea.
  4. Problem — the letter + solve notes. ≥2 solves sit side by side.
  5. Post a solve — what I did, link, pictures. Code in the back.
  6. Guide — one, optional.
  7. Boring — “this opens someone else’s page,” privacy/terms stub, robots + sitemap.

Objects, in English (not a schema)

User: created by Google or GitHub SSO. Name, avatar if they give it. No extra profile product in v1.

Problem: owner (User), title, body (the letter), optional who-has-it, optional already-tried, slug, created, published yes/no. AI refine writes a draft of title/body. Human publishes.

Solve: owner (User), one Problem, what I did, optional https link, up to 4 pictures, optional backstage prompt/repo/tool. Published yes/no.

No Comment, Bounty, Tag, Vote, Hire.

AI refine (what it is, what it is not)

It is: a short back-and-forth that turns “I have a stack of PDFs” into a letter a solver can use. It asks one thing at a time. It stays in the user’s words.

It is not: a chatbot product, an agent that builds the solve, a prompt for Cursor, or a way to write startup ideas.

What “done” means for this version

A stranger understands the homepage. They can read without an account. They can sign in with Google or GitHub in one tap. They can create a problem and let AI help tighten it. They can post a solve. Two solves on one problem sit side by side. Paper UI. API can read the same objects. Example problems may be seeded so the first visit is not empty.

How we build this (founder keeps hitting these)

Every project the founder vibe-codes dies the same two ways. Solves does not get to.

1. Tasks are centralized from the first day.

  • One list. One place. Before any screen is coded.
  • The phasing agent writes the phases. The coding-task agent writes tasks into that list. Nobody invents work in chat and then codes it.
  • A task has: what it is, which page or API it touches, what “done” looks like, and what it must not do.
  • If it is not on the list, it is not in the repo.
  • Seed content is tasks on that list, not a side quest.

2. CSS is one system, from the first commit.

  • One paper design: warm off-white, ink text, one type family, a small space scale (e.g. 8 / 16 / 24 / 40), one max width for the letter.
  • No new colors, fonts, or radii per page. No “just this once” stylesheet. No inline style soup. No second UI kit.
  • Home, Problem, Solve, sign-in, and the AI refine box all use the same components (page, letter, note, box, button).
  • If a vibe-coder would paste a new card style to ship a screen, they stop and use the existing one.
  • Check phone width on every page. Large type is a rule, not a hope.
  • Mad CSS is a ship-blocker. A page that does not look like the same paper is not done.

What the next agents should do

Phasing agent: Phase the system (SSO, create+AI, post solve, public read, paper UI, API). First phase includes “task list exists” and “paper CSS tokens + components exist.” Seed content is a task, not a phase. Do not start feature phases before those two.

Coding-task agent: First coding tasks are (1) the single task list, (2) the paper CSS system. Then SSO, create+AI, Problem/Solve pages, API. Do not skip User. Do not skip SSO. Do not skip AI refine. Do not add a page until it uses the paper components. Do not invent CSS. Do not build a hire desk, an editor, a hosted runtime, or a compare-as-a-product. Do not put code first on a Solve. Do not iframe demos.

Still on the founder

  • Who writes the first example solves so the desk is not empty
  • DNS for the three domains
  • Legal stub
  • Which AI (pick one; do not shop models in the product)