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- Idea Of The Day - Build the Backup Tool That Saves Your Contacts (and Your A**) Automatically
Idea Of The Day - Build the Backup Tool That Saves Your Contacts (and Your A**) Automatically
Needs To Exist
July 28, 2025
In partnership with
GM. This is Needs to Exist (aka NTE), delivering you a startup idea that’ll make contact lists bulletproof and business continuity automatic.
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You’ve got the idea because we gave it to you. NTE Zero to One helps you turn that spark into something real, fast.
Check out all the past newsletters here
Here’s what we’ve got for you today.
Daily Idea - Never Lose Contacts
Pitch Me Like I’m Five
Your Contacts, Always Backed Up
Thinking “I want to build this” but don’t know where to begin? That’s exactly what NTE Zero to One is for.
The One Liner
Never lose your contact list. Ever again.
The 140 character tweet (or X) version
When your CRM crashes, what happens to your leads? This tool quietly backs up every email & phone number, so your pipeline never vanishes.
The Longer Story Version
The Problem
Your contact list is your lifeline. And it's way more fragile than you think.
You spent years building that CRM: emails from launches, phone numbers from sales calls, leads from ad spend. Then one day, boom, something breaks. A rogue Zap. A junior dev. A sync issue. Or worse… your SaaS tool ghosts you.
Suddenly, your lifeline is a liability.
And it’s not just about losing data. It’s losing momentum. You can’t run campaigns. You can’t follow up. You’re stuck.
Most founders only realize this after it happens. That’s like buying flood insurance after the water hits the roof.
The Solution
A bulletproof safety net for your most valuable asset: your contact list.
Here’s how it works:
Real-time sync across CRMs, email tools, form platforms, and spreadsheets
Every email & phone number is encrypted, backed up, and versioned
If something gets wiped, you restore it with one click
Plus: engagement scoring, duplication cleanup, and growth tracking baked in
You get peace of mind. Your team gets resilience. Your pipeline keeps flowing.
It’s like Time Machine for your contact list, except smarter, safer, and made for teams who can’t afford to lose a single lead.
How We’d Build It
Beginner Build (Solo Builder, 1st Version)
Intermediate Build (Small Team, B2B Focus)
Build backend in Supabase with audit trails + change logs
Add live monitoring of contact source systems (CRMs, ESPs, forms)
Use OpenPipe or LangGraph to flag anomalies in email collection patterns
Slack alerts + webhook triggers when major changes happen
Go-to-market via agency partnerships & “compliance insurance” pitch
Advanced Build (Scaling, Security-First)
SOC 2 Type II ready backend (start with Secureframe or Vanta)
Live deduplication + merge suggestions using Pinecone + embeddings
AI health report: which leads are stale, invalid, or primed for re-engagement
Offer API-first version for B2B SaaS to bundle as value-add
Channel GTM through data compliance & privacy vendors, target enterprise IT
Why It Needs to Exist
Because no one thinks about backup… until it’s too late.
You insure your house. You insure your car. But most startups don’t insure their customer lists, arguably the most valuable asset they have.
This tool does exactly that. Quietly, consistently, and intelligently.
If your CRM goes down, your ops manager panics, or your startup changes platforms—this tool is your “undo” button.
It’s not loud. It’s not sexy.
But it’s a damn good business.
Let’s build it.
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You’ve got the idea
…and zero clue what to do next.
You’ve rewritten the name 6 times.
You’ve imagined the tweet that goes viral.
You even bought the domain (okay, 3 domains).
But you haven’t built it.
That’s where NTE Zero to One comes in.
We help you go from “kinda thinking about it” to “just launched it.”
You bring the idea (from your brain or from NTE Pro).
We bring the firepower, strategy, design, copy, code.
You leave with a real MVP and a link you’re proud to send.
Start for $49.
And finally build the thing you've been talking about.
Sign up for NTE Zero to One today.
Pitch Me Like I’m Five: The Contact Backup Tool
featuring a genius, a skeptic, and a toddler with a Pikachu lunchbox
Founder walks in. Sweaty but excited.
“Okay, hear me out. What if you never lost a single email or phone number ever again? A service that quietly backs up your entire contact database across CRMs, forms, spreadsheets, everything so if anything breaks, you just click ‘Restore’ and boom. Pipeline saved.”
Genius:
“YES. YES. YES. I’d invest yesterday.
This is like Dropbox for sales teams.
One rogue Zap, and boom your warm leads? Gone.
This is founder trauma insurance.
Give me a Stripe link.”
Skeptic:
“Hold on.
Doesn’t Google Contacts already kind of do this?
And HubSpot? And Notion?
Feels like this is… covered.”
Founder:
“Covered ish.
Google backs up your personal contacts.
This backs up all contacts, across tools.
And not just saves them, it audits them, tracks changes, gives you a full version history, alerts you if a form stops syncing, and lets you restore by timestamp.
Google doesn’t do that.
HubSpot doesn’t even know you’re panicking.”
Toddler:
“But will my Pokémon save?”
Founder:
“Yes, buddy. Pikachu’s email is safe.”
Genius:
“You don’t sell this to consumers. You sell it to anyone who cries when a CSV dies.
Agencies. B2B startups. Sales ops teams.
Even indie founders with 2,000 Gumroad buyers and zero backups.”
Skeptic:
“Still not convinced this is big.
Feels like a feature, not a company.”
Genius:
“Yeah, but it’s a feature no one has but everyone thinks they do.
That’s the wedge.
Start with contact backup.
Then layer in deduping, enrichment, re-engagement scoring.
Eventually it’s the nervous system of your revenue stack.”
Toddler:
“My dad lost his phone and said bad words.”
Founder:
“That’s exactly our ICP.”
Skeptic:
“What’s the moat? Can’t Notion build this next week?”
Genius:
“They won’t.
Too busy building AI calendars and emoji progress bars.
This is a boring, essential, vertical tool.
Notion’s never touching it.
But every founder who’s had a database die mid-campaign?
They’ll pay $49/mo gladly.”
Founder:
“And it’s SOC 2 ready from day one.
Because no one wants to explain to legal why all the customer emails disappeared.”
Toddler:
“Can I press the restore button?”
Founder:
“Yes. And we’ll make it yellow.”
Final Verdict:
✅ The Genius is in.
❌ The Skeptic wants to see MRR.
🍪 The Toddler got a cookie.
Moral of the story:
Nobody thinks they need contact backup.
Until they really, really do.
And then?
They’d pay anything to go back in time.
Let’s build it before they hit panic mode.
Coming Soon to NTE Pro: The Ideas That Took Off
The parody docuseries VCs don’t want you to see.
Episode 1: “He Found $12K in Credits... by Accident”
A freelancer signed up out of curiosity.
Thirty minutes later, he uncovered $12K in credits his accountant missed.
Now he helps other solo workers do the same—with no finance background.
💸 DeductIQ — Real-time tax planning for SMBs that saves money before year-end.
(And yes, it came straight from NTE Pro.)
Episode 2: “From FoodTok to Fully Booked”
She loved viral food content.
So she built a dining club where each dish came from TikTok.
Girl dinner. Trader Joe’s hacks. Kicked-up ramen nights.
🍝 Trend-Powered Social Dining — Real-world events inspired by viral meals.
Now there’s a waitlist… and a licensing deal.
Episode 3: “The Startup That Made Notion Look Basic”
He didn’t build a Notion clone.
He built taste into onboarding, voice, and brand.
And founders couldn’t get enough.
🎨 Tastemaker Platform for Startups’ Unique Branding — Brand kits with flavor, story, and anti-positioning.
One month later? First customer was a YC alum.
These are just 3 of 4,000+ startup ideas inside NTE Pro, a database packed with build-ready concepts across AI, SaaS, creator tools, fintech, consumer, and more.
Every idea comes with context, examples, and inspiration to get going, whether you’re building for real or just browsing like a VC.
👉 Click here to join NTE Pro.
You don’t need to binge the whole docuseries.
Just pick your episode… and build it.
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