Strategy

The core thesis

Privacy-respecting software exists, but most of it is built by US-based companies whose business model is misaligned. Atom Studios bets that there is enough of an EU-based, self-hosting-comfortable market to support a portfolio of small SaaS apps where the data stays under the user's control.

What we measure

• Per-app: Sean Ellis test score — would 4/5 of weekly-active users be very disappointed if the app went away? The only signal that matters before scaling.
• Cluster-wide: SLO adherence (availability, error rate, p95 latency) per tier.
• Studio-wide: monthly hosting + SaaS cost vs. revenue. Self-hosted means we feel every dependency.

What we won't do

• Take VC. Self-funded only — keeps incentives aligned with users.
• Add features for hypothetical users. If 5 actual users haven't asked for it, it doesn't ship.
• Compete on price alone. The privacy-conscious EU buyer is not the cheapest customer; they're the most loyal.

Per-app current state

See the apps grid and each app's detail page. Tiers (T0 / T1 / T2) come from infra/process/standards/tiers.md in the operations repo.