I turned my Reddit pain point analysis into a full service. Here's what I built and why.
A few weeks ago I posted about mapping ETF investor pain points from Reddit data. That post got some interesting responses — people asking if I could do the same for their niche.
So I built it out properly.
airiya.org is now a full end-to-end service:
→ Pain point research reports (40+ sources, priority matrix, verbatim user quotes)
→ Free tool development targeting the #1 pain point
→ High-converting landing page built from real user language
→ SEO/GEO monitoring
The first complete case study is live — ETF investing, from research to tool to landing page. Including a free ETF Overlap Checker that surfaces the #4 pain point (portfolio overlap) interactively.
Still early. No paying customers yet. But the pipeline is real.
Two questions for the IH community:
If you're validating a product idea right now, what's your biggest research bottleneck?
Would you pay for a pain point research report before building? Or only after?
Brutal honesty appreciated.
This has solid potential, especially for early-stage founders.
But right now it sounds like multiple services instead of one clear promise.
What you’re really offering is: “build what people already want.”
If you make that obvious through a simple before/after or case study demo, conversions will improve.
A sharp 20–30 sec video can do that much better than text If you want i can make it for you
Curious — how are you handling support/customer messages on that?
I’m realizing it becomes messy way faster than expected, even at low scale.
Still trying to find something simple that doesn’t feel overkill.
Keeping it deliberately simple for now — just a contact form that goes straight to email, and I respond personally to everything.
At this stage I actually want the friction. Every message is a signal. If someone fills out a form and writes three paragraphs about their problem, they're a real lead. If it's one line, usually not.
Once volume becomes an actual problem, I'll solve it then. But I've seen too many early founders spend time building support infrastructure before they have anyone to support.
What are you building — B2C or B2B?
yeah that makes a lot of sense — that early signal is super valuable
I’m building more on the B2B side, and seeing a similar pattern where everything still goes through email / direct messages early on
what I’ve been exploring is how to keep that raw input, but make it easier to spot what’s actually recurring vs one-off
not really replacing the flow, just helping you see what matters faster
Spot on. The 'raw input' is where the real nuance lives. Whether it's a Reddit rant or a B2B email, the challenge is always distilling that messy human emotion into a clear product signal.
Keep me posted on your progress — identifying 'what matters faster' is a huge win for any founder.
yeah that’s exactly it — “distilling it into a clear signal” is the hard part
what surprised me is how fast things start slipping through the cracks even when volume is still low
I’ve been building a simple way to surface those signals automatically from conversations
happy to share what it looks like if you’re curious
I totally feel that. The 'cracks' usually start appearing before we even realize the volume is growing.
I’m not quite ready to automate my own flow yet, but I’m definitely curious to see how you’re surfacing those signals. It’s a fascinating challenge to solve.
yeah that makes sense — I’m not a big fan of automating too early either
it’s really more about visibility than automation on my side
I can show you quickly — it basically sits on top of your conversations and highlights patterns / signals without changing your workflow
want me to send you a quick preview?
The 'requests coming in after the first post' → service product is a clean validation arc. You didn't pitch the service first; you did the work publicly, let people ask for more of it, then built around what was already being demanded.
The 40+ sources + verbatim user language approach is the right foundation for landing pages. Most copy fails because it uses founder language instead of the words people actually use when describing their own problem. Reddit data is a useful forcing function for that — it's unsolicited, unpolished, and much closer to real pain than any survey.
Curious about the free tool component — is that primarily for SEO/lead capture, or are you finding it builds enough product trust to convert to paid reports directly?
Spot on. Reddit is the best 'unsolicited truth' machine — it forces you to drop the 'founder ego' and speak the user's language.
To answer your question about the free tool: It’s actually both, but the priority is Trust.
SEO/Lead Capture: Yes, it targets a high-intent keyword (ETF overlap).
Proof of Work: It’s a live demo of the research. When people see I can turn messy Reddit rants into a functional solution, the 'Research Report' stops being abstract and starts being tangible.
It’s less about a direct 'click-to-buy' and more about proving I understand the niche before asking for a sale. Curious — are you also using public data to validate something right now?
That “research → tool → landing page” chain makes a lot of sense.
We’ve seen something similar where the biggest shift comes from using actual user language instead of what founders think people care about.
The tricky part is turning that into something people will actually pay for.
From what we’ve seen, most founders are happy to read research, but only pay once it’s tied directly to something actionable.
Curious if the interest you’ve had so far is more around the reports themselves, or the full “build something from it” side?
Really useful framing — and honestly it matches what I'm seeing so far.
The few people who've reached out are less interested in "give me a report to read" and more interested in "help me figure out what to build or how to position what I already have." The research is the means, not the end.
Which is why I structured the full package as research → tool → landing page. The report alone is table stakes. The value is what you do with it — and most early-stage founders don't have time to translate insights into product decisions themselves.
So to answer directly: the interest seems to be on the "build something from it" side. The report is just the foundation.
What's your context — are you currently validating something?
"Eric, the way you've mapped out a full end-to-end service—from priority matrices to developing tools like that ETF Overlap Checker—is a masterclass in solving 'research bottlenecks.' Since you're still early with a real pipeline but no paying customers yet, there’s a competition where you can submit this — entry is $19 and winner gets a Tokyo trip. Prize pool just opened at $0. Your odds are the best right now. It might be the exact spark you need to turn that pipeline into revenue!"