Anyone struggling to find ideas?
It seems like all the ideas are some way implemented or there is not enough pain in them ?
So where to find good ideas ?
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It seems like all the ideas are some way implemented or there is not enough pain in them ?
So where to find good ideas ?
for me, i always keep this in mind: "Idea is cheap, execution is matter"
Not really, nope .. ideas are the main thing, choosing your idea carefully will set the path to whatever comes later. B2C or B2B ? Lot of building or lot of sales ? Which price ? All of these and much more, needs to be considered before choosing an idea. This is how it works: idea-validation-acquiring the first 10 customers-product/market fit. These four .. No execution, no funding or no hard work can guarantee success if these four are not perfect. So yeah, it all starts with finding ideas.
I’d say all that is part of execution? No one knows the answer to all those questions, so you need to execute to narrow down on those answers
This is so true
I'm struggling to find the energy and the time to develop all my ideas
develop or validate ?
you gotta paddle as the wave is forming. aka as the niche/category is forming start building. i subscribe to trends.co ($200/year) and explodingideas.co (free) to get weekly market research on new growing niches and categories that I can build a business in. if it overlaps with my interests i test businesses in that category.
i've had 3 profitable online businesses.
This is a nice analogy 👍 do you wait to see if a trend is sticky (ie more than just a couple of days) before launching a business?
for the trend itself, a couple days is not enough time to prove that it's not a fluke. meaning for example, if there's a trend called "spiking" where you mix energy drink with coffee and it's hyped on tiktok for a few days I wouldn't build a business around it yet. but if that trend has been growing for the last 6 months it may be indicative of an opportunity.
some trends are worth the early stage risk though (<6 months growth). but that depends on your confidence level and risk tolerance and just know the risk you're taking in that case. for example when ordinals (bitcoin nfts) came out a few months ago I built a twitter around it called "ordinals alerts" that would announce new ordinals drops. i got followers instantly but noone knew if ordinals was a hype trend or something that was here to stay. i took the bet that it was here to stay and was wrong. i got followers really quick but they lost interest b/c the trend died. I was interested in learning about ordinals though so it was worth the risk for me, I also have a high risk tolerance. I abandoned the project after a month b/c I saw the writing on the wall that the trend was dying. if you're going to take a risk on an opportunity that is forming be self aware enough to bail on it if it's not working and knowing the reason why is fundamental. for ordinals it was just too hard to buy/sell and there was too much opaqueness and fraud as a result. so yea that was a fundamental issue that made it worse of an option than an Eth NFT. so bailed on it.
I personally would not spend over 1 month testing an idea so if it's a trend that's been building over 6months-1year and you want to launch something around it, if it doesn't take off quickly in the first few weeks and you've tried posting in relevant places where the community hangs out, it's prob a bad idea. so i'd move on to something else.
Appreciate the response - super interesting approach.
interesting. thanks for the tip
For the past weeks, I have been thinking a lot about this. Earlier today, I was browsing (again) for ideas and stumbled upon @upenv's Micro SaaS Idea. Packed with great ideas and also a great catalyzer. The How to brainstorm great business ideas from IH's "Start Here" section was also a great read.
Thanks for the mention of Micro SaaS Ideas and also just followed you on Twitter!!
We grew to 25K subscribers and covering some good ideas and also news around Micro SaaS every week.
Out of curiosity, do you use some software to help you identify when someone mentions Micro SaaS Idea?
I have some systems in place to capture data points, trends, niches. So, yes, I spend considerable amount of time on this to identify working patterns.
I mean .. Once you read the article you will see that we mention Micro SaaS Idea from upenv‘s and other stuff too
Thankyou for the mention. More power!!
In fact, when we come up with a good idea, there are at least 10,000 people in every corner of the world who have the same one as us. For me, I would do it this way.
In my opinion, that's only because you aren't training yourself to look for problems to solve, or you aren't putting yourself out there enough to be in a position to find them.
I think you should think about an area of interest you have, and then immerse yourself not in the interest, but the people who immerse themselves in the interest. The problem's aren't in the interest itself, they are in how people interact with the interest. Observe what they do, what they struggle with. Then start focusing on those struggles. Decidedly not on your own struggles, but theirs.
Im one of the devs that got laid off recently and with the job market looking a little bleak I'm challenging myself to dive deep on this and launch my own service by end of the month. As someone who is totally new to this space, this is very helpful.
Thanks 🙏
There is not really a lack of ideas. Only the time to implement them or at least validate them.
Are these good ideas? Cuz I have list of like 100-120 ideas but out of those only 10 might be good and that can make some money.
I think you can only say that once you have validated them. But it will probably have a similar rate with my ideas. of the 6 projects i carried out so far, only one was successful.
Cool. I have a idea about encrypted dairy app and trying to test if people are interested in privacy focused notes application.
Probably find a competitive niche OR create a solution to your OWN problem, just to get it started
If you already get to the validating part, this helped me https://founderscafe.io/post/get-paying-customers-before-building-anything goodluck :-D
Really nice blog post, thank you!
Build around you and eat your own cooking so that you will be in better position to identify pain/gain.
That is the strategy that I am using for my startup Prepnd: prepnd.com
You can find more information in these great resources from Michael Skok.
https://www.slideshare.net/mjskok/startup-secrets-roadmap-to-success
https://youtu.be/ktou5CQX1W0
Nice to know, promoting on my indie hackers can bring a lot of visibility. Check our linkedin group where we encourage promotion. micro-saas
I have a draft article going on this, 13 Non-obvious ways to come up with product and feature ideas.
I tried to go pick the weirdest, most non-common methods for coming up with new ideas, I would love to hear if you have any thoughts/feedback:
https://lex.page/read/7b660199-f949-4ea0-a697-c320668ecdfd
You delivered such an impressive piece to read, giving every subject enlightenment for us to gain information.
Thanks for sharing such information with us due to which my several concepts have been cleared.
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I think the best way is just to compete with the big players, but try to niche down and launch to your first users and iterate based off of the user feedback good luck 🤞
I always find coming up with an idea is the EASY part. Building the idea in a timely (ever?) manner is the hard part. And not because I don't have the skillset to build them. I just find that I meander and get off a "MVP" path and add more "features"/functions before ever showing my idea to the world or even getting to MVP status.
Then there is the "paralysis" that comes with having too many ideas: Which one do I focus on and staying on focus with that idea only and not bouncing between several.
Plus life gets in the way of completing a single idea...
Oh the excuses I make for myself :/
Yes you can say. I personally try to find something new at all time. As I found something new or I thought it will work I take interest.
I'd say just stick to personal problems, you'll find the best ideas there
Cool article 👌 How long would you recommend spending on the validation phase and what metrics do you use to assess whether an idea is good enough to pass validation?
I have the same problem. I think "Already implemented" is not an issue. In a town square a restaurant is "already implemented", but you still have plenty of restaurants.
Not enough pain is an issue, although what is "pain"? When I look at what I buy online it is more what is "no brain" rather than what is "pain". What is an important problem to solve, who solves it in a way I can't say no, I don't have to think. I think that is why you have sales pages with lots of information, money back guarantees, social proof, free trials, and so on, to make it less of a decision for the buyer to say yes.
Hot take, but I think "pain" is over used. I can literally have a headache, and not care. But I will pay $4 for a good coffee to be made for me, because it tastes nice. I think buying is more complex than just "pain". But people who buy things love a no-brainer, that is my take. E.g. a laptop with the same processor for $100 cheaper on the better brand. OK will go for that.
In order to come up with good ideas, I'd look at the things around you and identify what problems or gaps you see that can use a solution.
Every good idea is either: A) a painkiller or B) a vitamin ; both of improve the wellbeing of the user at the end.
Write down things daily. come up with a list of 50-60 problems (big or small) around you, and subsequently come up with ways that could potentially solve that problem. Something will stick
So, to get better at coming up with ideas, I think you need to get into the habit of noticing and evaluating problems.
The best way I've found to do this is to just set aside some time to write down the problems that I (or someone else) encountered today. To get in the habit, do it daily.
Then when you have some time, evaluate your ideas. Periodically, I'll go through my list of problems and I'll evaluate each problem. I like the 5PM framework for evaluating ideas.
Eventually, you'll get much better at noticing potential ideas and doing a first-pass at evaluating whether it might be worth pursuing.
Good luck!
I’d totally recommend you to try some of the ideas you like the most, and see it through the eyes and mindset to think (living the experience) how to improve them. What kind of issues do you have while using them, what can improve? How can I do this better?! Just my idea!
Test test and more test
Yes, I'm not having many ideas. It scares me a bit because one day another new technology will appear and I won't be "ready".
You know the usual 'scratch your own itch'. Any problem you feel? Possibly others do too.
If the idea already exists, somehow it is still not good enough or there is still some nice market.
Some present ideas are usually not good enough yet, just keep on researching and you'll get there :-)
Whoever searches finds it..
I want to know the problem of optimizing(https://isochemi.com/) bulk images on my site.
In some way implemented means nothing. There were a few dozen photo apps before Instagram launched and 18 months later sold for 1b w/ a staff of under 20 ppl
Quality of startups is not defined by enough pain, however demand, innovation, creativity, market approach, and more.
Challenge yourself to journal 5 new startup ideas a day. It’ll become muscle memory.
These are just the basics… take a look at the article because we elaborated way past your point.
The article is way, way past my point (and a great article) my only suggestion was a tool. A 2-5 minute a day exercise or task. Something quick that could get the creative juices flowing.
This question gets posted with great frequency.
I think part of the issue is that many people believe they need to find some golden idea.
But you're much better off just building a slightly better mousetrap.
Play games you can win by competing against dorks. Are there people out there making money with shitty products that you can improve upon?
Those companies prove there's market appetite. Then try to figure out what the customers dislike about the current offerings and improve those.
That's an important point btw. Y'all engineers are smart so sometimes you'll build things that YOU think are better but that the customer doesn't give a fuck about. That can be tricky to wrap your head around. Esp. if you consider their way inferior or less efficient. But you have to humble yourself and remember, the one paying gets to decide. I.e. The customers.
Once you stop thinking ideas need to come out of your head and start embracing the role of RESEARCHER, which is the biggest job the marketer has, your life will become easier because ideas will simply emerge from your research.
Many indiehackers think marketing = distribution. You come up with a product in isolation, make it, perfect it, refactor the code, make the perfect site, launch it, get no customers, launch it on Product Hunt, beg for upvotes on Twitter and IH, launch on Reddit, get no customers once again, scrap it, and re-run the cycle.
Some people get lucky. Which is why this advice is still around.
But a better approach is to simply build stuff based on real problems your audience has. And you find that through research.
TLDR: when in doubt, do more research. Marketing has the word "market" in it. That's where you should be; in the market. Not in the office. It's not called Office-ing.
P.S. I ship a daily newsletter about exactly these issues. I also had a conversation with my marketing Professor this week which I'll ship to my podcast soon where we discussed exactly this in great detail. (It's called customer-orientation)