Now enrolling · Build on LINE · Founding cohort · Taichung or online

Build software where the customers already are.

Learn how to find opportunities, build production-ready apps, launch into established software marketplaces, and turn platform distribution into a real software business.

Start with LINE → See the learning path

From your first LINE app to enterprise marketplaces like Atlassian, Salesforce, Microsoft, and AWS.

The BuildOn Marketplaces builder at a laptop, working across several app marketplaces

LINEMessaging + Mini Apps

SlackWorkplace apps

ShopifyCommerce apps

AtlassianEnterprise workflow

AWSCloud marketplace

The BuildOn Marketplaces builder at a laptop showing a LINE app

Marketplace 01 · LINE · Taiwan

Start where Taiwan already talks: build on LINE.

LINE is the messaging app most of Taiwan opens every day, with more than 21 million monthly users by LINE’s own count, and it is also a platform. Official Accounts, rich menus, the Messaging API and Mini Apps let a small team ship a product customers can use without installing anything. That makes it the right first marketplace, and it is where our founding cohort begins.

Customers are already there. Bookings, orders, loyalty and support all happen in a chat window people already have open.
No app store between you and the user. A Mini App opens from a message, a rich menu or a QR code. Ship on Monday, get feedback on Tuesday.
A real business model on day one. Build for your own business, for clients, or for a product idea, and learn what it takes to get paid.

4 weeksBuild sprint

32 hoursIn the classroom

8 seatsSmall by design

Taichung or onlineTaught in English

Oct 20Applications close

Apply for the founding cohort → See how the cohort works

Applying is free. Tuition is requested only after acceptance.

The problem we solve

Most developers learn to build products. Very few learn to build distribution into the product.

The hardest part of software is often not writing the code. It is finding customers, earning trust, integrating into existing workflows, and getting people to pay.

Traditional SaaS path

Build first. Search for customers later.

You start with a product, then spend months figuring out SEO, outbound, paid acquisition, partnerships, onboarding, integrations, and trust from scratch.

Marketplace-first path

Start where customers already work.

Choose an ecosystem with active users, identify a workflow gap, build directly on the platform, publish into its marketplace, and use the ecosystem itself as part of your distribution strategy.

The BuildOn thesis

Don’t build another app and hope customers show up. Build for the places customers already use every day.

We teach developers, founders, agencies, and technical operators how to turn established ecosystems into launchpads for new software products.

Where you can build

Start simple. Graduate to enterprise.

Not every marketplace requires the same skill level. We organize ecosystems by technical difficulty, buyer sophistication, and go-to-market complexity. Each one gets its own guide on this site: who the buyers are, what the platform gives you, what to build first, and what launch really takes. LINE is first.

LINE

Messaging experiences, Rich Menus, Mini Apps, business workflows for Taiwan and Japan.

Cohort 1 · Enrolling

Slack

Bots, internal workflows, AI assistants, productivity tools.

Easy

Airtable

Extensions, automations, workflow products for operators.

Easy

Shopify

Merchant tools, operations, marketing, analytics, commerce workflows.

Easy → Medium

HubSpot

Sales, marketing, CRM, enrichment, reporting, automation.

Medium

Atlassian

Jira and Confluence apps for large B2B teams.

Medium

Salesforce

Commercial CRM applications with enterprise buyers.

Hard

AWS Marketplace

SaaS, AI, data, cloud products, and enterprise procurement.

Advanced

The learning path

From first marketplace app to enterprise software company.

The curriculum is designed as a progression. Learn the mechanics on approachable ecosystems, then move into increasingly valuable B2B and enterprise marketplaces.

LEVEL 01

Marketplace Builder

Learn the fundamentals by shipping a real app.

LINE · now enrolling
Slack
Airtable
Shopify
Chrome

LEVEL 02

B2B App Builder

Build software businesses inside work platforms.

HubSpot
Atlassian
Google Workspace
monday.com
Zendesk

LEVEL 03

Enterprise Builder

Learn the architecture and expectations of larger buyers.

Salesforce
ServiceNow
Snowflake
Microsoft
Okta

LEVEL 04

Cloud Marketplace Founder

Package and sell software through hyperscaler procurement.

AWS Marketplace
Azure Marketplace
Google Cloud Marketplace
AI agents
Data products

How the founding cohort works

Four weeks. One real app. Built to launch.

Our live cohort format is designed around shipping, not passive watching. You work from a real product requirement through build, QA, and a demo-ready MVP, using AI-assisted development to move faster while understanding what ships.

Running the app you build costs nothing while you test, and about US$31–77 a month live, with real users. The full curriculum and the price of every service are in our app on LINE. Instructor and Taichung venue: to be announced.

Add us on LINE Apply for the LINE cohort

QR code that adds BuildOn Marketplaces on LINE On a computer? Scan to add us.

Week 0

Product scoping

A private call before Week 1: one user, one problem, one workflow, one measurable outcome, and a one-page PRD.

Week 1

Foundation

Open the starter inside LINE, understand who the user is, and ship a first deploy by the end of the week.

Week 2

Data and the core workflow

Model your product’s data, then make the one thing it must do work end to end on a phone, with real data.

Week 3

Productisation

Connect the product to LINE properly, handle every state a screen can be in, pass a security review, and run on your own domain.

Week 4

Production

Feature freeze. Harden, monitor, pass the quality gate, document what is not done, and rehearse the demo to time.

Demo Day

Show it, keep it

Five minutes each, live on a phone, in front of founders, agencies and future applicants. You keep everything you built.

What you leave with

Education that ends with an asset, not just information.

A working application

A real MVP connected to an existing marketplace ecosystem.

A repeatable build framework

A process you can use again across other marketplaces and clients.

A commercial path

Clear next steps for publishing, pricing, selling, or turning the app into a business.

Who this is for

Built for people who want to ship.

Developers

Turn technical skill into products that have a clearer distribution path.

Entrepreneurs

Start with an ecosystem and customer workflow instead of a blank market.

Agencies

Add marketplace development as a specialized service for existing clients.

Technical students

Learn modern API-driven product development by building something real.

BuildOn Research

Marketplace intelligence for builders.

Original research on where software ecosystems are growing, what customers are buying, where competition is thickening, and where new opportunities are emerging. Founding members read it first and decide which marketplaces we track; thirty of them shape the product from October.

REPORT · IN PROGRESS

State of the Shopify App Store

Categories growing fastest, where competition is thickening, and where opportunity remains.

REPORT · IN PROGRESS

Where should developers build in 2027?

Shopify, Atlassian, HubSpot, Apple, LINE and the rest, compared on economics and access.

REPORT · IN PROGRESS

The economics of marketplace apps

Pricing, platform fees, distribution and monetization across the major ecosystems.

Explore founding access → See the roadmap

Frequently asked

A different kind of software education.

Because it is where Taiwanese customers already are, the tooling is approachable, and a small team can ship something real in weeks. Official Accounts, the Messaging API and Mini Apps teach every marketplace skill, from platform APIs to review and distribution, on the friendliest possible surface. Later tracks apply the same method to Slack, Shopify, Atlassian and the cloud marketplaces.

No. BuildOn Marketplaces assumes you already have some technical ability or can work effectively with modern AI coding tools. The focus is marketplace-specific product development, launch strategy, and building a commercial application.

Not necessarily. Some marketplaces have review, verification, security, or partner requirements that can extend beyond the course. The goal is a production-ready MVP and a clear publication path.

Marketplaces give you an existing platform, user behavior, APIs, trust layer, and potential distribution channel. You still need to market and sell, but you are building into an environment where the customer and workflow already exist.

Yes. The long-term curriculum progresses from approachable marketplaces into B2B, enterprise, and cloud marketplaces such as Atlassian, Salesforce, Microsoft, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

BuildOn Marketplaces · Founding cohort

Start with LINE. Build the app. Learn how to turn it into a business.

Eight seats, in person in Taichung or live online as the cohort prefers, taught in English. Applications close October 20, 2026. Applying is free and takes about ten minutes.

Add us on LINE Apply for the founding cohort →