EchoOwn

Build a ban-proof community forum your audience owns and takes anywhere.

Score: 8.0/10AustraliaMedium BuildReady to Spawn
Brand Colors

The Opportunity

Problem

Small creators lose their entire audience and business overnight due to unpredictable bans or shadowbans on social platforms where they lack true ownership.

Solution

EchoOwn lets creators spin up customizable forums with member portability - users get exportable profiles and posts. Import social followers as members and host discussions on your domain. True ownership with no platform risk.

Target Audience

Small content creators and solopreneur businesses relying on social media for audience growth and revenue

Differentiator

Portable member profiles that follow creators across platforms.

Brand Voice

friendly

Features

Forum Creator

must-have25h

One-click setup of threaded discussions on your subdomain.

Social Member Import

must-have15h

Bulk invite social followers to join forum.

Profile Portability

must-have20h

Members export their posts/activity as JSON.

Moderation Tools

must-have12h

Spam filter, roles, bans.

Activity Feed

must-have15h

Real-time updates and notifications.

Custom Themes

nice-to-have10h

Branded CSS editor.

Email Digests

nice-to-have8h

Weekly community summaries.

Search

nice-to-have10h

Full-text post search.

Total Build Time: 115 hours

Database Schema

users

ColumnTypeNullable
iduuidNo
emailtextNo
profile_datajsonbYes
created_attimestampNo

communities

ColumnTypeNullable
iduuidNo
creator_iduuidNo
subdomaintextNo
member_countintNo

Relationships:

  • creator_id -> users.id

posts

ColumnTypeNullable
iduuidNo
community_iduuidNo
user_iduuidNo
contenttextNo

Relationships:

  • community_id -> communities.id
  • user_id -> users.id

invites

ColumnTypeNullable
iduuidNo
community_iduuidNo
emails_sentintNo

Relationships:

  • community_id -> communities.id

API Endpoints

POST
/api/communities

Create new community

🔒 Auth Required
POST
/api/communities/:id/posts

Post new thread

🔒 Auth Required
POST
/api/invites/:id/send

Bulk send invites

🔒 Auth Required
GET
/api/profiles/:id/export

Export user data

🔒 Auth Required
GET
/api/communities/:id

Fetch community stats

🔒 Auth Required

Tech Stack

Frontend
Next.js 14 + Tailwind + shadcn/ui
Backend
Next.js API routes
Database
Supabase Postgres
Auth
Supabase Auth
Payments
Stripe
Hosting
Vercel
Additional Tools
Pusher for realtimeResend emails

Build Timeline

Week 1: Core setup

40h
  • Auth
  • DB
  • Basic forum UI

Week 2: Posting system

40h
  • Posts CRUD
  • Realtime

Week 3: Invites & imports

40h
  • Bulk invite logic

Week 4: Moderation & portability

35h
  • Exports
  • Roles

Week 5: Polish & payments

30h
  • Themes
  • Stripe

Week 6: Deploy & test

25h
  • Subdomains
  • Launch

Week 7: Optimizations

20h
  • Search prototype

Week 8: Final tweaks

10h
  • E2E tests
Total Timeline: 8 weeks • 240 hours

Pricing Tiers

Free

$0/mo

No realtime

  • 1 community
  • 100 members
  • Basic posts

Pro

$25/mo

5k members total

  • Unlimited communities
  • 5k members
  • Realtime, moderation

Enterprise

$99/mo

None

  • All Pro + custom domains
  • Unlimited
  • API access

Revenue Projections

MonthUsersConversionMRRARR
Month 1804%$80$960
Month 68007%$1,400$16,800

Unit Economics

$20
CAC
$250
LTV
6%
Churn
88%
Margin
LTV:CAC Ratio: 12.5xExcellent!

Landing Page Copy

Your Own Forum, Ban-Proof Forever

Portable communities where members own their data - import social followers today.

Feature Highlights

Custom subdomain
Portable profiles
Bulk social invites
Realtime chat-like feed
Easy moderation

Social Proof (Placeholders)

"Ditched Discord after ban scare! - @devguru"
"My audience loves owning their convos. - Creator Y"
"Perfect indie community tool. - Z"

First Three Customers

Target newsletter creators on Substack/Twitter complaining about Discord reliance, offer beta access via DMs to 30. Share MVP demo on IndieHackers forum. Convert personal contacts running communities.

Launch Channels

Product Huntr/indiehackersHacker News ShowTwitter #buildinpublic

SEO Keywords

owned community forumcreator discord alternativeportable member profilesban proof forum

Competitive Analysis

Circle.so

circle.so
$49+/mo
Strength

All-in-one communities

Weakness

Platform lock-in

Our Advantage

Data portability

Discourse

discourse.org
Self-host free/$100+
Strength

Open source

Weakness

Complex setup

Our Advantage

SaaS simple + portable

🏰 Moat Strategy

Network effects from portable profiles creating cross-community stickiness.

⏰ Why Now?

Creator exodus from Discord/Slack bans + Web3 data ownership trend.

Risks & Mitigation

technicalmedium severity

Realtime scaling

Mitigation

Supabase realtime limits + queuing

executionmedium severity

Low engagement

Mitigation

Import incentives

marketlow severity

Hosted vs self-host pref

Mitigation

Free tier showcase

Validation Roadmap

pre-build5 days

Survey 25 creators on community pains

Success: 80% want portability

mvp21 days

Beta with 20 communities

Success: 50% retention wk2

growth30 days

Affiliate program

Success: 20% MoM growth

Pivot Options

  • Pure chat tool
  • Newsletter communities
  • Profile aggregator

Quick Stats

Build Time
240h
Target MRR (6 mo)
$1,400
Market Size
$3000.0M
Features
8
Database Tables
4
API Endpoints
5