Date Generated: 2026-03-03 Category: Niche SaaS / Craft-Tech Hybrid Target Audience: Independent pottery studios, community ceramic art centers, and clay co-ops Income Potential: $10,000–$25,000/month at scale Startup Cost: $0–$500 (hosting, domain, tooling)

Kiln OS — Studio Management Software for Independent Pottery Studios

The Idea

A purpose-built studio management platform for independent pottery and ceramics studios — handling class scheduling, kiln firing slot booking, open studio memberships, clay inventory, and payments in one place.

The Problem You Solve

Independent pottery studios run on spreadsheets, paper sign-ups, Square, and a patchwork of Google Forms. Generic booking tools (Mindbody, Acuity, Pike13) were built for fitness and wellness studios — they don't understand firing schedules, kiln load planning, glaze inventory, clay weight tracking, or the difference between a beginner wheel-throwing class and an open studio session. Studio owners spend hours each week on admin work that software should handle. There is no dedicated software for this niche.

Core Features (MVP)

• Class scheduling & booking — public-facing calendar, capacity limits, waitlists, online payment
• Kiln firing slot management — book a bisque or glaze firing slot, track whose work is in which load
• Open studio memberships — recurring billing, check-in tracking, member portal
• Clay & materials inventory — track clay bodies and glazes by weight/volume with low-stock alerts
• Instructor dashboard — see enrolled students, attendance, notes per class
• Simple CRM — student profiles, purchase history, skill level

Pricing

• Starter: $89/month — 1 location, up to 3 instructors, class booking + payments
• Studio: $189/month — kiln management, memberships, inventory, unlimited instructors
• Multi-location / Co-op: $349/month — multiple locations, shared kiln tracking, reporting

Tech Stack

• Frontend: Next.js + TypeScript
• Backend/DB: Supabase (Postgres, Auth, Row-Level Security)
• Payments: Stripe (subscriptions + one-time class bookings)
• Hosting: Vercel
• Email: Resend
• Scheduling UI: react-big-calendar or custom grid

How to Build MVP

Week 1–2: Auth + studio onboarding flow, class creation, public booking page, Stripe Checkout for class payments Week 3–4: Kiln slot booking module (grid: date × kiln × slot), member subscription billing via Stripe Week 5–6: Inventory tracker (add item, set unit, log usage), instructor dashboard, basic student CRM Week 7–8: Polish, onboarding docs, email confirmations, deploy to Vercel + Supabase prod

How to Get First Customers

1. Join pottery communities — r/Pottery, local Facebook groups for ceramic artists, are full of studio owners complaining about admin overhead
2. Cold outreach to local studios — visit or email 20–30 pottery studios in your city; offer a free 3-month beta
3. Directory sourcing — find studios via Google Maps, Yelp, and the American Craft Council directory; send personalized cold emails
4. Content SEO — "pottery studio management software", "kiln scheduling app" are low-competition, high-intent keywords
5. Partner with clay suppliers — distributors like Sheffield Pottery or Axner have direct relationships with thousands of studios

Revenue Math

Customers	Plan	MRR
30 studios	Studio ($189)	$5,670
50 studios	Studio ($189)	$9,450
40 Starter + 30 Studio + 5 Multi	Mixed	~$12,000

At $189 average: 54 paying studios = $10,206/month. There are an estimated 3,000–5,000 independent pottery and ceramics studios in the US alone. Even 1% market penetration = 30–50 customers.

Why This Is Different

Every other studio management tool is a horizontal solution (Mindbody, Acuity, Pike13, WellnessLiving) retrofitted to work for ceramics. None of them understand the kiln as a core scheduling constraint. None track clay weight. None have glaze inventory. A founder who actually throws pottery can build software that makes studio owners feel immediately understood — that credibility is rare and hard to fake.

Path to Quitting Day Job

• Month 1–2: Build MVP, onboard 5 beta studios for free
• Month 3: Launch paid plans, target 15 paying customers ($2,000–$3,000 MRR)
• Month 6: 30–40 studios, $5,000–$8,000 MRR
• Month 9–12: 50–70 studios, $10,000–$13,000 MRR — day job optional
• Long term: Add a marketplace layer (glaze recipes, lesson plan templates, tool recommendations), expand to adjacent craft studios (glass, metalsmithing, fiber arts)

Risks & Mitigations

• Small niche: ~3,000–5,000 US studios. Mitigated by low churn (operational software is sticky), expansion into adjacent craft disciplines, and international markets (UK, Australia, EU all have strong ceramics communities).
• Slow sales cycle: Studio owners are often solo operators, not tech buyers. Mitigated by offering a free trial, monthly billing with no annual lock-in, and white-glove migration help.
• Large players could add kiln features: Acuity or Mindbody theoretically could, but they won't — the niche is too small for their roadmap to care about.

Why This Works for You Specifically

You are a software engineer who does pottery. That exact rare combination is the moat. You can speak the language of studio owners — you know what a bisque firing is, why kiln load planning matters, the difference between cone 6 and cone 10 glazes. Generic SaaS builders can't fake that domain knowledge, and studio owners will sense it immediately. Your stack (Next.js, Supabase, Stripe, Vercel) maps directly to what this product needs, and you can build the entire MVP solo in 6–8 weeks without dependencies.

First Action

Walk into 3 local pottery studios this week. Introduce yourself as a potter and a software engineer who is building management tools for studios, and ask if you can buy them coffee to learn about their biggest admin headaches. One conversation will either validate the idea or sharpen it — and might hand you your first beta customer.