EuroShelf

Who it's for

1-3 person hardware makers selling dev boards, keyboards, synths and gadgets on Tindie, Lectronz, Crowd Supply or Shopify; today they cope by blocking EU shipping ('we no longer ship to the EU'), stitching free PDF guides plus ChatGPT, or paying €1,500-3,000 per product to compliance consultants.

The problem

Payment: blocking the EU cuts 15-30% of revenue (the core complaint in the 993-point Lectronz post), and Amazon EU/Etsy now reject listings missing GPSR responsible-person fields. Legal: GPSR (in force since Dec 2024) demands an EU-based responsible person, a 10-year technical file and correct labeling, with customs seizure and marketplace delisting for non-compliance.

How to build it

Web app: upload product photos, spec sheet, BOM and listing URL → generated technical-documentation bundle (exportable for the 10-year retention rule), DoC draft, SVG/PDF label pack, per-country EPR/WEEE walkthroughs with pre-filled forms (start: Germany LUCID + stiftung EAR, France), a listing-readiness checker for Etsy/Amazon/Tindie GPSR fields, and subscription management for the micro Responsible-Person tier via a partner EU entity.

How it makes money

Makers pay €149-249 one-time per product for the compliance pack plus €99/yr for the micro-RP slot, because the alternatives are a €2k consultant or writing off ~25% of revenue — and free options (ChatGPT, PDF guides) cannot act as the named EU responsible person or produce a defensible 10-year technical file.

Why it doesn't exist yet

Incumbents skip it: TÜV/SGS-style compliance firms chase €50k+ enterprise product lines, existing authorized-rep services target Amazon FBA importers at €500-2,500/yr, and marketplaces punt liability onto sellers (Etsy collects fields but provides nothing). The indie gap: a micro-tier RP collective (one partner EU entity covers many low-risk sub-1,000-unit sellers at ~€99/yr) plus document generation tuned to maker hardware (dev boards, LiPo batteries, radios → LVD/EMC/RED checklists) — too small for TÜV, too liability-heavy for marketplaces.

First users

The 993-point HN thread is full of makers who say they've stopped EU shipping, and Lectronz wrote the article — their seller base and Tindie's EU-blocked listings are directly reachable via seller Discords, EEVblog and synth-DIY forums; offer the first product pack free for an onboarding call.

Build size

2 people x 10 weeks: doc generator, label pack, DE/FR registration walkthroughs, listing checker, RP-partner integration. Excluded: actual lab safety testing (maker reuses module certs / gets referrals) and holding the RP role in-house (partner EU entity carries it).

Biggest risk

Kill event: Shopify or Etsy bundles a free responsible-person service plus auto-generated technical file into seller onboarding (Etsy already collects the fields), collapsing the paid wedge; secondary risk is EU narrowing GPSR scope for micro-sellers, removing urgency.

Conditions for a hit (all 3 required)

• Public self-serve flow: upload a product listing (photos, specs, BOM) and download a GPSR technical-documentation file, draft Declaration of Conformity and print-ready CE/WEEE label pack in under 30 minutes with no consultant involved
• A purchasable micro Responsible-Person subscription priced ≤€150/year, capped for sellers under ~1,000 EU units/year, providing a named EU address the maker can legally print on packaging — visible on the pricing page
• Listing checker: paste an Etsy, Amazon or Tindie URL and get pass/fail on every GPSR-required field (responsible-person name/address, safety warnings, CE marking) with the missing fields enumerated

How it's judged (in 6 months)

Product Hunt daily top 10 or HN front-page launch describing the product, plus a live public pricing page showing a per-product compliance pack and a ≤€150/yr responsible-person tier(judgment date 2027-02-25)

AI self-confidence 45/100 — self-reported likelihood of meeting the criterion, not a business success rate