I have no startup ideas

The fact that your ideas seem so stupid to you is because you are comparing your current idea to all the others.

You probably often look at products that have been worked on for some time, which makes your idea seem even worse than it actually is.

It's like a painter painting landscapes.
If he would compare his idea with the pictures that already exist, he would probably lose his motivation to do the work at all.

This is where the big mistake lies.

Ideas are nothing more than a rough outline of something you would like to do.
It doesn't matter if others have already had this idea, and how well thought out it seems.

Many products started with an idea that no longer has much to do with what it is today.

Just like the artist who had a rough idea of what he wanted to paint, and what was then on the canvas in the end.

My tip for you:
Start with the idea you have, without overthinking it too often and save yourself the time to even compare your idea with the ideas and products of others.

It is not important how "good" the idea is.
It should only be good enough to motivate you to work on it.

Work on your product and make decisions along the way.
The longer you work on your product, the less it will have anything to do with your initial idea.

I hope I could help you further.
Best regards.

There's a few really good articles on here by @csallen and @arvidkahl on this topic. On top of that, being a founder myself, I can confidently say 2 things:

1. Build for people you love dearly.

2. Build things you care deeply about.
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   -> you need to give a damn about what you make and who you make it for, otherwise you will hate yourself most of the days because of the sheer stress of being a founder.
   .
   .

3. Don't try to do things you have no passion for.

4. Find partners/co-founders/advisors to help you.
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   -> i'm non-technical, and I don't want to spend 50 hours learning programming for making a site from scratch. Instead, I focus on things I love - sales, marketing, growth, interviews, operations, etc.
   -> reach out to other founders for advice once you've gotten some initial traction and keep finding ways to improve your thinking, your product and how you reach your customers. There are 50 more lines I want to write for this point, but not right now haha.
   .
   .

Lastly, join cohorts where you build with others. I'm leading the #BuildSell30 movement on Twitter (https://twitter.com/BuildSell30) where you challenge yourself to build a business and reach $100 in 30 days -> our next cohort is on May 1st, and I highly recommend you to join because:

1. it's like a practical MBA
2. you build with pros and amateurs
3. and you learn a lot about your strengths and weaknesses by DOING instead of just dreaming and thinking.

I'm always available for a chat too so just dm me on twitter!!! good luck :D

The idea will come… In the meantime, copy some existing solution out there, so that you keep practicing your building muscles.

I was feeling just like that a couple of weeks ago, until I decided to build the foundation of my potential products: an admin and an API with user registration, and authentication. After a few weeks of working on it, I have finally found an interesting problem to solve with a product, and it won’t take that long to build an MVP because I am going to reuse parts of my other project.

Right now I am focused in validating the problem.

Instead of an idea, find a problem.

The idea will follow.

🤙😎

I am still having the same problem with you.
I just want to share with my thought and what I will try.

1. Start building an idea list. Came up with 3 ideas per day for a week, no matter how stupid the idea may look like. I use trello to keep my ideas.
2. Search on the internet for your ideas, you may see more angles on how people are trying to solve the same problem.
3. Read comments and feedbacks from existing product which is similar to your idea. You can start your project by solving the most popular issue these product has.
4. Just blindly go through all the outside SAAS, learn the way of their thinking. And going back to your idea list, you may see them at a different angle now.

You can find others SAAS from https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KDA-MiENWTN39780JJc1MDBV2irw4bokEF6MXcBKCek/edit#gid=0, uploaded by carlos avendaño(https://www.indiehackers.com/post/launch-your-mvp-here-prior-to-doing-on-product-hunt-5518a3f06f)

Having no idea is a blessing. Because when it comes and you know this is it. You will never be the same.

In my podcast interview with Arvid he shares his method to come up with ideas. In general I think that you just have to practice and soon your problem will be to focus in only one idea XD

Another thing that helps is surrounding yourself with other indie makers and getting inspiration from them. I run a community of entrepreneurs called WBE Space, maybe could be a good starting point for you...

I actually wrote an article that addresses this question: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/please-stop-inventing-instead-start-improving-9f43106e43

You do not need an world-changing idea. You need to look at something that you can improve. What is an existing product that you like? Can you make it better? Can you offer it with better UX and some new functionality?

That's what you need to build. Don't worry if 10 people are working on the same idea. It just means that there's likely to be a good market for it.

Trying to find an "idea" to work on will rarely yield profitable businesses. What you need to do is find a problem to solve. Ideally it's a problem you yourself have and can relate to. And it must be a problem other people are having; solving something just for yourself is obviously also not worth the effort.

This is now 10 years old, but still as relevant as it was then: http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html

"Why do so many founders build things no one wants? Because they begin by trying to think of startup ideas. That m.o. is doubly dangerous: it doesn't merely yield few good ideas; it yields bad ideas that sound plausible enough to fool you into working on them."
– Paul Graham

SaaS ideas often can’t be forced. More times than not, they come to you organically. Sometimes when you’re least expecting it and not thinking too hard about it.

Here are some ways to actively get your brain in the right mindset to start germinating ideas. It will also introduce you to communities where you can engage that will give you SaaS ideas in return.

Maybe you’ll get lucky and that will all happen quickly.

But what’s more likely is you’ll dive into the world of SaaS, startups and becoming a founder and over time, the best ideas will naturally come to you.

How to come up with SaaS ideas for real businesses

1. Twitter
2. Indie Hackers
3. Product Hunt
4. Online reviews
5. Credit card statements
6. Google Trends

You got this!

I have a different problem, I have too many ideas that I want to try but no time to work on them.
I sometimes find that a product that I came up with already exists, but for me it's only a confirmation that there is a market for my idea and that it's already validated.

A few years ago, I did a 20-ideas-a-day challenge with a good friend.

Especially in the beginning it wasn't about finished business ideas: Started with something obscure like "things you can do with an pineapple". Meaning you hammer out 10 easy ones. Then stammer and don't know any more. But then force your creative muscle to try harder and find some unusual ideas (might still have the code and database somewhere, if you want me to search for the questions).

It took about 30 mins each day and we made it a habit to do it daily. To train how easily you can think of new solutions and ideas, not necessarily business ideas.

Once you've got that going, it might help with being aware of new solutions that make you money as well.

Just find a problem, and fix it in such a way as makes you money.

Eg. I tried to make my daughters room entirely voice controlled, but there are still two buttons she needs to press. Both these buttons are power buttons, so you could build a voice activated power hub.

Next phase would be to research it, see what's on the market. If this stage goes well, and you think there is a gap in the market, its time to start making detailed plans.

One million. That's how many I got.

You got coding skills. I got marketing and sales skills. Happy to team up.

You don't need to invent something new. Just improve something that has been already built.

If you are good at a particular skill you should consider building a productized service. A productized service is like an agency but you do just one particular service that's very clearly defined at a very clearly defined price point.

I recommend following this guy: https://twitter.com/BrettFromDJ

I've built a productized service and got to 8k MRR in 3 months. It's not as hot as a Saas but it will likely be cash-flow positive much faster than a traditional Saas would be.

Start local. What problems do you face in your daily life?

Then once you find a common pain point, look at building an MVP that solves this issue or at least improves the situation.

There may even already be solutions on the market. This should not deter you.

This just means that there is already a market to enter - you now just have to find a way to differentiate your solutions.

I think it's silly to wait for inspiration 🤮 What you need to do is take the problems you face in real life seriously and brainstorm about them. If you examine the successful side projects, you will see that they all solve a real problem quickly. Probably this is the secret.

I had the same issue. What helped me was: Go trough your day and think about what problems you have daily.

Everyone has their problems. What particular problem can you solve? Anything that annoys you, is a potential problem.

I personally like @patio11's approach of thinking "who to serve" instead of "what to build". I found that when I focus on people I like to serve, it is easier to have conversations with them and understand their problems. I'm doing this with my cofounder now! :)

Patrick has a great video on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtmUJye7t4c&ab_channel=MicroConf

Hello you,

Why not try to write anything that cross your mind? It works with me, I thought I never had ideas (or that they were stupid) but writing my thoughts made it "easy" to taking them outside of my head. When it's on paper I can question it easily and go with a critical approach.

Questioning things, approaching them from a different pov, having conversation with people you don't agree with. This things can help a sense of criticism and reasoning. An brings idea.

Or another option, you don't necessarily need to start a "new" thing but adding your twist to it. Or bettering it.

As in for inspiration, I tend to not find it in the "tech world" but more in what's not really tech or just a part of it is. (don't know if I am expression that well ^^')

Hopefully it helped a little ☺️.

Try to write down every idea you have, even the stupid ones! It's definitely a skill that comes easier with practice.

Please check Micro SaaS Ideas.

We have about 76 niches covering 800+ profitable Micro SaaS ideas that are making or has potential to make decent revenue. Hope some of these give you inspiration.

We are close to 8000 subscribers.

Find your passion and build a business around the pain points of that passion.

I have lots of ideas. When I see more products, I can think of even better ideas. The issue is when I turn on my business strategy hat and most of the ideas have very high % of failure rate...

So I am stuck with no good ideas. The few products/services I pushed out either already had demand or as a pivot/clone.

Input many things. For example see app store or IH projects and try to use them, talk to friends and are there any things they are worrying. Then you may find somethings to fix. Hints are around us.

I need a revenue recognition service can you help? https://www.chargebee.com/resources/guides/saas-revenue-recognition-guide/

I’m better at building things than coming up with ideas too. I started keeping a list of interesting ideas or problems I’ve seen around (even if I don’t have a solution) and that’s been a good way to work that muscle.