What's Your System to Generate SaaS Ideas

Work on other ideas.

Since working on BudgetSheet, I have had at least 3 other totally new SaaS ideas to solve various things I ran into that were difficult and that I felt should be easier.

One of the best ways to get new ideas for things that are actually useful is to experience the pain yourself. The only way to do that is to get out there and try things!

A couple approaches that I've been exploring:

1. Scratch your own itch - build something for a problem you're facing.
2. Scratch a community's itch - browse Indie Hackers, Twitter (with advanced search) and see what people are complaining about. Look for keywords like 'problem', 'sucks'
3. Talk to people! People love talking about their problems
4. Keyword research - Danny Postma has a great thread on looking for keywords with low keyword difficulty, and building a business around that: https://twitter.com/dannypostmaa/status/1646368426246680579

i follow a bunch of market research publications like trends.co and explodingideas.co and if something appeals to my interest i try it. mainly rely on third parties for the signals for ideas/research

I am building an entire ecosystem for this at Micro SaaS HQ - It comes with a detailed Newsletters on various Micro SaaS niches, data points of current players, Technical and Marketing analysis for each niche, Cost analysis, Trends & News on whats's happening in the Micro SaaS and SaaS ecosystem and access to a closed community as well.

There are many different approaches but I believe that the best is the one that fits you.
I explain better: just as me and you may have different ways to study and learn a subject, we may have different "best-ways" to look for problems to solve.
A lot of people rely on the keyword research, and I also think that data-first approaches are the best ones, but I get bored quickly when doing kW and data research, and this transforms a good approach into a unproductive one.
I enjoy way more browsing communities (Reddit, LinkedIn groups, Fb groups) and reading what people is complaining about and what other people suggest as solution.
My favourite approach, though, is thinking about the go-to-market phase of an hypothetical product, and then work my way to find a problem.
What could I sell easily with the knowledge/audience/tools I already have? What could I sell to the people I interact with? What could I sell to the people with the money ready?

Quick example:

1. I engage often sport clubs in my area, and the relation is now warm/informal. I could easily talk to them about a project and onboard them as first users.
2. What's an itch they have? Paying with cash at the bar is the only option when booking a pitch, but the bar has a different owner and it's a mess.
3. An app that allows players to pay with credit card/paypal is an easy fix.
4. Would I be able to create that right now? I'm not a developer but probably thanks to Bubble or another nocode tool I would be able to deliver.
5. Would I enjoy doing it? Yes.
   At this point, I would start sketching up the tool and thinking in deep about the what, how, etc...

Maybe look for a (category of) product/SaaS you like/you are fascinated and think if you can do a more basic/simple version of it. The founders of Basecamp called that 'underdo you competition'.

And if that simple version can be done with ai or automation, the better.

chatgpt?

@qfoster Hello,

Look at the top-grossing SaaS products on the market or look at products that have been around for a long time and have a large user base.

Once you've identified a profitable SaaS product, it's important to research it in-depth. This includes understanding the product's features, its target market, its pricing and most importantly its weaknesses (anything from a lack of features to a high price point).

After identifying the product's weaknesses, differentiate your product or service. This could be done by offering additional features, a lower price point, or a better customer experience.

Now that you've made your product or service stand out from the competition, it's time to release it to the public.

Find something which is near impossible to do.

In my case, I found scraping Google was pretty much impossible to do without expertise.

Google's bot detection algorithms are just too good but I still wanted to scrape data from Google without having to pay the equivalent of an arm and leg for residential proxies so i built SerpScraperAPI - you can scrape Google for $1 per 1000 requests!

1. Look at problems first.
2. Think about why the problem is not solved.
3. It is a good time to solve it?
4. Can I solve it?

Mostly just noticing things around me, and have simple notes system so I always can write it down.
Eventually, throught the years I have more ideas that I will manage ever to implement.

I face problems all the time and when i find something that i can solve which can be useful to others as well, i go for it.

There's a bit of balancing that needs to be done between starting something that you're passionate about and will see through vs a business that is financially sustainable in the long run. I started an online business where people could book studio visits with artists. I worked in the art world and so had an insight into it as well as passion. The thing was the art world is a tiny niche and in the margins per studio visit were very low which meant we'd have to do a high volume of studio visits. The problem was people only wanted to do visits with high profile artists, so volume was pretty much out of the picture. I spent a lot of time and money trying to figure out how to do this balancing act. In retrospect, I wish I could have found out these fundamental issues earlier in my decision to start the business.

The main point is once you have identified potential SaaS ideas, validate them by seeking feedback from your target audience. Create prototypes to gather user feedback and iterate on your solutions based on their input. Finally, tracking plays a vital role in all your work.. To measure your website performance, use a SEO tool and take your journey to the next level..

Having the same questions recently. Here for answers.

Generally speaking, searching for a problem isn't a great starting point. If you're not invested in it, you're probably not going to have the commitment to find PMF.

That's not a blanket rule though, and there are ways around it. Perhaps consider finding an existing product that has some traction but you feel confident you can beat and continually ship faster than their team for.

TLDR: If i have a problem or passion I build something to solve it (problem) or help me enjoy it (passion). Preferably I build something that covers both. Ideas are the easy part. Executing and monetizing them are the challenge.

For instance, I am currently working on Eurotripr.com - a tool to help people plan affordable trips to Europe and inspire them to do so with confidence.

I love European travel, and I dream of traveling there far too often, and I like planning itineraries I will one day use in Europe.

Does something like this exist already? Probably. Do I care? Not at all. I'm making this for me and for people like me to scratch that travel itch.

Can I monetize this? Sure: Create member only features like member chat to help each other plan better trips, tracking your trip and places visited to share with others, custom itinerary builders, meet other members to have travel mates, sell ads to display to non-members, sell travel gear or affiliate links, add a Tours nad Tour Guides feature that allows local tour companies and guides to promote themselves on the site to travelers.

Another example: I used to cycle more than i do now. I enjoy it and have always wanted to ride a century (100 mile ride). I procrastinate and am 60 pounds overweight since the last time i really cycled (mid-20s 30 miles regular rides, 87 longest) so I need to build up to a point again where I can survive 100 mile ride. Are there tools to track my ride, track my progress, motivate me to ride? TONS. Do I use them? I have but never for long. So I built ZeroToCentury.com to build myself a riding schedule to get me from lazy slob to century cyclist in 6-8 weeks. I'm working the plan and documenting the rides.

Can I monetize this? Sure: make a community of avid cyclists that motivate each other to hit the century, charge a subscription cost for additional ride-tracking/chat/other features, sell bike gear or affiliate links, add a financial penalty to those that sign up and fail to hit the 100 mile ride goal.

My list goes on and on:

Soccer Score predictor and news app (my friends and I love doing score predictors during world cups, so i built a simple one that offers all the various leagues and cups we follow),

Scouts achievement tracker and virtual instructions (I am a scout leader for my sons cub scout pack and needed this during COVID),

Soccer skills tracking app (i was a soccer coach before and during covid for a youth team so I built this for our club so all the coaches could have a way for their teams to practice and track their achievements and rank against the teammates to stay motivated).

A Book Reading List that tracks the books I want to read, estimates the number of pages and hours I still have to read to get through my list, and suggests books from my list to read if I am not sure what to read next.

A Honeymoon gift app for my wedding so my wife and I could add EXPEREIENCES for our honeymoon that we wanted and the guests could gift them to us through Cash Gifts.

A general Gift giving tool to 1. help me remember to get a gift for friends/family throughout the year and WHAT to get them based on what I have added tot heir list or they have added to their wishlist throughout the year.

Do all these things exist? Probably. DOes it matter? No. There is enough space in EVERY market for you to carve out some of the profit for yourself. Also, don't get hung up on THE single idea to rule them all. Try tons of things. Put all of them out there. See what sticks, ditch the ones that don't, and repeat until you are making money.

I think one of the best ways to start is by building a plugin for an already massively-used tool. Then who knows, you may pivot and build the rest of the tool, becoming a competitor. Good luck and keep us posted!

Honestly, going on YC meet a cofounder and finding a cofounder with an existing idea has been the best for me.

Hey there! 👋
I've always found that the best SaaS ideas come from personal experiences and day-to-day frustrations. Start with your own life - are there any repetitive tasks or problems that you encounter regularly that could be streamlined or solved with a software solution?

Another idea is to look at problems that you face in your 9-5 job and see if you can create a B2B solution. It's hugely helpful that you already have knowledge within that domain.

Hi! 👋🏽 I’m always looking for business ideas and opportunities in the little mundane tasks of life. Sometimes it feels like too many ideas and so little time (to market them all!)

This weekend was Half Day Build and I chose to make a database of 250+ business ideas that could be made with no-code tools, and also built it using no-code tools. There’s some fun ideas in here, have a look and let me know what you think?

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