Why building a simple API might be the most underrated path to online freedom
There's something beautifully mundane about lawn-mowing businesses. They're not sexy, they won't make headlines, and they certainly won't get you invited to TechCrunch Disrupt. But they're also steady, profitable, and nearly impossible to kill.
API businesses are the digital equivalent.
Simple, steady, boring… but perfect for a solo developer or tiny team looking to build real freedom online.
The API Advantage: Why Boring Wins
Low Barrier to Entry
You don't need VC money, a co-founder, or even an office. Just time, code, and the discipline to solve a real problem. While others are pitching investors and building complicated SaaS platforms, you can ship an API in weeks.
Few Competitors
Most APIs live in small, specific niches rather than winner-take-all bloodbaths. There's room for multiple players because the market isn't trying to be everything to everyone.
Sticky as Glue
Once your API is integrated into a company's system, they don't rip it out unless it breaks. The switching costs are real, and "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is the default mindset.
High Leverage Economics
You only need a handful of paying customers to make a solid living. No massive user acquisition funnels or complex conversion paths—just businesses paying monthly for a service that works.
The "Set It and Forget It" Reality
Low churn isn't just a nice-to-have; it's built into the model. As long as your API works reliably, customers leave it in place for years. That's recurring revenue you can actually count on.
Real Examples: Tiny Teams, Big Results
The proof is in the businesses already crushing it:
- ScrapingBee – 4 people building a web scraping API
- Scrape Creators – 1 person solving content extraction
- ScreenshotOne – 1 developer making screenshot generation simple
- Cobalt Intelligence – 2 people in the data intelligence space
- FinancialDatasets.ai – Solo founder serving financial data needs
These aren't unicorns. They're profitable, sustainable businesses run by small teams who chose boring over buzzy.
The Playbook: Lessons from Lawn Care
The strategy mirrors successful service businesses:
- Be Ridiculously Accessible - Plaster your email everywhere. Respond to every message. Let people easily schedule calls with you. Most API providers hide behind support tickets and chatbots. Just being human wins deals.
- Speed Matters More Than Polish - Answer emails as quickly as possible. Most competitors are faceless and unresponsive. While they're optimizing their automated responses, you're closing deals by actually showing up.
- Reliability Over Features - Your customers don't want the most innovative API. They want the one that works every single time. Stability beats novelty in the API game.
The Reality Check
It's not all roses. You might get woken up at 3 AM when something breaks. Your friends won't understand what you do. And yeah, it's "boring." You're not building the next viral app or revolutionary platform.
But boring is beautiful.
While others chase unicorn valuations and viral growth, you're building something more valuable: predictable income, low stress, and actual freedom.
Why API Businesses Are Underrated
In a world obsessed with venture capital and exponential growth, API businesses get overlooked. They don't scale to billions of users. They don't generate press coverage. They don't fit the startup narrative.
That's exactly why they work.
Simple. Profitable. Low churn. Hard to kill.
If you're a solo developer tired of the startup circus, an API business might be your path to online freedom. Not through disruption or innovation, but through the most old-school business principle of all: solving real problems for people willing to pay.
Just like mowing lawns, but with better margins and no grass stains.