PopClip

PopClip is the macOS text selection enhancement utility Nick Moore bootstrapped from London, UK in 2011. Whenever you select text on a Mac, PopClip shows a small popup bar with contextual actions: copy, paste, search Google, translate, look up dictionary, open a URL, send to your task manager, and dozens more via an extension ecosystem. The app grew to $1M+ ARR as a near-solo operation by becoming a cult favorite in the Mac power-user community. PopClip's extension system — anyone can write a simple YAML or JavaScript extension to add a new action to the popup bar — created a community of 200+ extensions covering every workflow: send selected text to Notion, create a new Things task, translate with DeepL, format as code, capitalize, count words, and more. This ecosystem turned PopClip from a utility into a platform, with each new extension satisfying a new niche of users who then became evangelists. The $12.99 one-time price made it an impulse purchase for any Mac user who saw it in a "must-have Mac apps" list.