💻 Software

10–20 hrs/wk

Browser Extension (Paid)

Build a Chrome or Firefox extension solving a specific problem. Charge one-time fee or subscription.

Startup cost: $100–$1,000
Time to first $: ~35 days
Break even at: 41 subscribers/mo
Following: 2.2K

Overview

The ratings, in full

Difficulty

Startup cost

Income ceiling

Scalability

Time to first $

Who can help

JS Dev

Growth Loops

Support

Browse the expert directory →

Videos

10 walkthroughs worth watching

7 more walkthroughs

All-Access opens the rest, each with a written summary and timestamped jump points so you can skip to the part you need — for $120/year.

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Break-even

The number that decides it

At this playbook's own planning figures, covering $322.5 of monthly running costs takes:

41 subscribers a month

You keep about $8 per subscriber after fees and delivery costs.

Run your own numbers

That figure assumes this playbook's prices and costs. Members get the calculator: change the price, the fees, the delivery cost, the churn — and watch the break-even move before spending a cent.

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Economics

What the maths has to do

Monthly revenue target: $1,000
Subs needed at planning avg: 125
Estimated net per user per month: $4.50 – $14.00

Price points

One time: $10 – $29
Subscription: 5–15per month

Launch velocity

Week 2: MVP live to early users
Week 6 to 8: Premium enabled + store approvals complete

Monetization notes

External payments (Stripe/Paddle), as Chrome Payments are deprecated.
Offer free tier + paywall for premium actions to improve activation.

Budget

What it costs, line by line

Build to first sale: $100 – $1,000
Sales & marketing to $1k/mo: $300 – $800

The itemised budget

The top-line range is above. Members get every line under it — what each tool, sample and ad test costs at lean, standard and fully-loaded, so you know what you're committing to before you commit.

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What you’ll need

The kit, and what it runs you

JavaScript + browser APIsFree
Developer account (Chrome)$0 – $5one-time
Payments (Stripe/Paddle)Freeper month
Analytics & error tracking$0 – $20per month
Optional backend/serverless$0 – $25per month

Everything above: $0 – $50 to get started.

Recommended stack

Dev

VS Code

GitHub

Ship fast with feature flags

Data

PostHog/Amplitude

Sentry

Activation, funnels, errors

The rest of the stack

Every remaining tool this playbook recommends, what each one costs, and which free tier is good enough to start on.

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Checklist

8 steps, in order, costed

1
Identify pain point for knowledge workers
Build: FreeMarketing: Free
2
Build MVP extension (2–6 weeks)
Dev fee + basic assets + optional testing
Build: $24 – $187Marketing: Free
3
Launch free to get first users
Build: $0 – $60Marketing: $0 – $100

5 more steps in the full playbook

Unlock the rest — plus progress tracking, the break-even calculator and every other playbook — for $120/year.

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Risks

How this goes wrong

Platform/API changes can break the extension

Chrome/Firefox deprecations (e.g., Manifest V2/V3) or permission changes can disable features.

Watch these

Crash-free sessions
Lagging
Sessions without runtime errorsHealthy: ≥ 99%Act at: < 97%
Error rate
Leading
Errors per 1k sessionsHealthy: < 5/1kAct at: ≥ 10/1k
API watchlist coverage
Diagnostic
% key APIs monitored for deprecationHealthy: 100%Act at: < 80%

What to do

Track deprecation schedules; pin to stable manifests.
Automated error reporting + canary channel for early detection.
Fallbacks for changed permissions; graceful feature degradation.

The rest of the failure modes

Every remaining risk, with the metric that warns you it's happening, the reading that means act now, and what to do about it.

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Timeline

What the first months look like

Week by week

The milestone schedule this playbook is written around — what should be true by week one, week three and month three, so you can tell early whether you're behind.

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