I kept starting projects and dropping them. So I built a system that wouldn’t let me
Hey IH đź‘‹
I probably started around 5 or 6 projects over the last few years. Most of them just stopped.
Not because I ran out of energy or ideas. Because at some point I'd pause and realize I couldn't answer one simple question.
Why this idea?
Not in a vague sense. Why this problem? why this audience? why now? ??
Victor, my co-founder and the engineer behind NicheIQ, was hitting the same wall from a different direction. He'd build something that worked, spend evenings improving it, polish parts nobody was ever going to see. Then stop. Same question, same silence.
We came from opposite sides. I spent years on the finance and business side of early-stage companies, watching founders choose ideas loosely and validate too late. Victor spent years building products and systems, instinct always pulling him toward shipping first and figuring things out as he goes.
Different backgrounds. Identical mistake.
And when we started talking about it, we realized the problem wasn't the ideas. It was that neither of us had a process we actually trusted.
One more thing before you read on.
This post is on me, Lucy. And for me its the hardest part. Really. I used that founders come to me for advise, and its not the same how to promote own product. I handle sales and growth. Victor builds the product. I have never in my life run a social media account or posted anything publicly and honestly my co-founder will not let me hear the end of it if nobody shows up.
So if nothing else, please just click through. For the partnership. Explore tha Niche Catalog with more than 500+ niche market researched and 1600+ ideas
👉 Welcome https://nicheiq.dev/
How do you validate ideas or monitor a niche you're interested in?
Respect for putting yourself out there, Lucy. On the validation question: tools like NicheIQ are useful for sparking ideas, but they cannot tell you which one will pay. The only real validation is collecting money before you build. My rule for the founders I coach: write the offer, send it to 30 people in the target niche by name, and ask for a $50 or $100 deposit. Not 'would you use this'. Not a survey. Actual dollars committed. If 5 people pay, the idea is real. If nobody pays, no amount of niche research saves it. The 'why this idea, why now' question almost always answers itself once someone hands you money. Until then, you are just journaling. Good luck with the launch.
What's the system? Genuinely curious — I've been shipping more consistently since I started treating each project as a 6-week sprint with a hard stop date.
The 'why this problem, why this audience, why now' framing is deceptively hard to answer honestly — and I think that's exactly why so many of us skip it. It's much easier to keep building than to sit with the discomfort of not really knowing if the problem is urgent enough for the right people. What you described about Victor polishing parts nobody would see really resonated; that's a classic signal that the conviction in the idea isn't fully there yet. For your question on validation: the fastest signal I've found isn't a landing page or survey — it's finding 5-10 people actively trying to solve the problem right now and talking to them before writing a line of code. Does NicheIQ surface demand signals from communities and forums, or is it more trend/keyword based?
This is a strong founder pain because the real problem is not lack of ideas. It is not trusting the reason behind the idea enough to keep going when the work gets boring.
That is a sharper angle than “niche catalog.” The product feels more like an early decision system for founders: why this market, why this audience, why now, and what signals are strong enough to justify building.
I’d lean harder into that trust/process layer. A catalog of 500 niches and 1600 ideas is useful, but the bigger promise is helping founders avoid months of building around a weak assumption.
One thing I’d pressure-test early is the name. NicheIQ explains what it does, but it may keep the product feeling like a database of niches rather than a serious market-intelligence layer for deciding what to build next.
Exirra .com would fit that broader direction better if the product becomes about founder signal, niche intelligence, and validation before execution. The product can stay exactly what it is, but a stronger brand shell could make it feel less like an idea list and more like a system founders trust before committing months of work.
Thank you, make a sense!
Glad it landed.
I’d only revisit the naming seriously if you plan to position this beyond “niche ideas” and more as a founder decision/intelligence layer.
If that broader direction is real, then it’s worth pressure-testing before the product gets too tied to NicheIQ publicly.
Thanks