Struggling to Find My First SaaS Idea – Advice from Experts?
Hey everyone! 👋
I’m just getting started on my SaaS journey and, like many beginners, I’m facing the classic challenge—choosing the right idea to work on.
I feel like I might be overthinking it. On one hand, I just need to dive in and build something to gain experience. But at the same time, I want to ensure I’m working on a valuable idea with real potential.
I’ve done my research, watched countless videos on finding a good SaaS idea, but I still feel stuck. So, I’d love to hear from those who’ve been through this:
How did you come up with your first SaaS idea?
What helped you break out of analysis paralysis?
Any advice for someone in my position?
Would truly appreciate any insights! Thanks in advance. 🙌
Replies
Take an existing SaaS idea and make it work offline if it's feasible. Different target market 😉
Have you considered starting with a micro-SaaS idea? Try solving a small but real problem you've personally faced—especially something that still involves manual work.
For example, I help clients find brandable names that avoid trademark and legal issues. One challenge I kept running into was checking if a domain is available, if it's on a resale marketplace, and whether the same name is free on social media. I also needed to do trademark checks, which made the process tedious. 🥵
Sometimes domains aren’t available immediately but become available later. So I built a tool to simplify this entire process — it's called pluswhois.com. it l̶a̶u̶n̶c̶h̶e̶d̶ went live just last week. It’s still early, but it’s already streamlined my workflow a lot.
Thanks Shekhar, yeah I'm thinking about starting small to get some experience first :)
Product Hunt
@nxame agree with this! I recently read this approach, selfish software which echoes what you mention here!
https://every.to/source-code/selfish-software
@ph_leeanntrang Oh we have term for it, thanks for sharing the article.
Product Hunt
@nxame you mentioned it built a tool (pluswhois.com) and launched it last week! Did you launch it on Product Hunt? I treid searching for it but didn't see it and don't see it in your profile. You should launch on Product Hunt if you haven't already!
@ph_leeanntrang will launch on PH real soon :), getting some basic MVP out first with monitoring and subscription + some NSFW clearance.
@nxame @ph_leeanntrang Selfish Software is brilliant!
Easiest thing to do is find a space that you generally know and understand where there is competition but people don't like some or many parts of the main players. Go through Product Hunt, G2, Capterra reviews and what people say on Twitter, then build a version of the product that fixes those things.
The main point I find really helpful is: it's way easier to compete in an established space by being better than a competitor than it is to create something new from thin air.
@steveb Thanks a lot for your input Steve. Yeah, I always had this rookie mindset that thinks competition is a bad thing while it actually isn't. I will try to find something I know at least to a certain extent and check what's out there :)
@victor_pimentel It's so much easier to not re-invent the wheel. Competing on features/price/business model/etc. is much more obvious to customers.
@steveb Cannot agree more, especially for a beginner like me :)
@steveb @victor_pimentel I would also add -- 99% of the time when a founder thinks there's no competition for an idea, they haven't done enough research. Perhaps current offerings aren't exactly 1:1 to the founder's concept, but competitors with ancilliary or up-/down-market offerings can easily flex into the space. We have to remember we're competing for the customer and their buy, not to offer the most / best features.
@leah_madden Very true, thanks for that input Leah. I tended to focus on providing the best features I imagined in my head when what really matters is building features that people would pay for :)
@victor_pimentel that's always the rub between the artist and the gallery 😂 (or in this instance, the dev and the greater marketplace)
Find the Problem – I saw a common issue in a particular industry where existing solutions were too slow and extremely expensive.
Test First – Instead of guessing, I made a simple version without using any AI Tools and checked if people were interested before fully building it.
@kankipati_arun Thanks a lot Arun! I have an industry in mind, now I have to find a problem to solve :) I see you are launching soon! Good luck!
My first “real” idea came when I stopped looking for unicorns and started noticing boring problems around me. Ask people what they hate doing at work—that’s SaaS gold.
@alex_cloudstar Thanks for that Alex! That moment actually happened a couple of hours ago when I was talking to my girlfriend who is an online language tutor. I still cannot believe I was missing a pain point of one of the people that I spend the most time with... :O
Non-tech perspective: I think it depends on what your goals are with this first SaaS. If you want it to be a commercial success, I'd be thinking about what role you'll play in the founding team. A great founding team usually has at least one person who has deep knowledge / experience in the industry and knows customers and their pain points; at least one person who has a vision for getting the product to market, can create and execute on a strategy for early traction; and at least one person who knows how to build the product. At the concept stage (I.e. basic prototype or earlier), those are all roughly equal roles and should all be contributing to the plan for the company.
If your goal is just to get something shipped, with the idea that your first few products probably wont grow into huge corps but it's better to get the experience under your belt, I like the advice given here of keeping it simple and looking for smallish problems that are annoying. One of those problems will "click" with you, that you can see a clear and achievable path to build a solution. I'm also a fan, whether it's a big or small project, of keeping dev roadmaps lightweight: ship, get feedback, adjust, repeat. That's the best way to stay scrappy and get the best ROI on your time and eventually your $ investment.
FWIW, I think the second option is best for most founders!
@leah_madden Very interesting perspective Leah, and I cannot agree more. I would say I am in the "just want to ship something" phase. I really like your idea of 'ship - get feedback - adjust - repeat'. It is definitely the best way to keep improving and eventually build an amazing product.
Hey Victor I LOVE this post. One micro directional change can have massive implications downstream, so this is the most important and exciting part.
Here’s a different way that I would suggest approaching the issue:
Instead of looking for a good opportunity generally (this is what everyone will chase and has lots of competition), you should first figure out your purpose. Your unique thing that you were put on this planet to do. That will keep you guided with a mission, vision, and give you a unique advantage that no one else has because no one else is you.
Once you know what your purpose on earth is, the ideas will just flow to you naturally.
I’d suggest diving into a few frameworks to guide this:
Robert Greene’s Mastery: especially the concept of your Life’s Task and Creative Task
Simon Sinek’s Find Your Why
Ikigai: the Japanese concept that helps you align what you love, what you’re good at, and what people will pay for
And if you want to go deeper: Napoleon Hill, Jordan Peterson, Carl Jung, Viktor Frankl
You don’t need to read everything. YouTube summaries are great to get the gist quickly and feel inspired.
Once you’re familiar with the concepts, open ChatGPT and ask it to help you find your purpose by channeling these thinkers. It’ll ask you lots of questions and provide amazing insights about your purpose, motivations, talents, and why you're here.
To help you get started, I made a super simple prompt thread that is full of questions you can just start journaling into:
https://chatgpt.com/share/67f28b4c-2ea0-8001-afca-b14a1474855f
Start exploring. Journal. Reflect. Then everything will fall into place.
Once you have clarity on your purpose, even if it’s a rough, then brainstorm ideas aligned with that. ChatGPT is also SUPER helpful with this as well. As you go, just ask it, what would be the best businesses that I could start that align with my purpose etc.
Once you have an idea you love, test fast, keep it lean, expect pivots, and don’t over invest at the start. In a few years, you’ll iterate into something that’s not only viable, but deeply fulfilling.
Hope this is helpful as this topic is at the core of my purpose and I can talk about it forever!
@moonlite_money Hi Ben, thanks a lot for all the amazing comments! I really like your perspective, diving deep into the purpose that makes you happy. That is very profound and meaningful. I am about to run a smoke test with a couple of ideas that have the similar concept but targeting different niches to see which one has the biggest impact.
Really appreciate the books you listed too. I will definitely have a look and find my purpose :)
@victor_pimentel love all of that. best of luck and keep me updated!
@moonlite_money Will do, thanks Ben! :D
minimalist phone: creating folders
Hard to say. If we knew, we would already build it.
In general...
Try to find in discussion what problems people have (Reddit, forum comments)
What is your passion – when you are an expert in a certain topic, you are more likely to create a good product
First, try to come up with something that already exists and add something yours + "train" marketing on that product
@busmark_w_nika What is "train" marketing?
@busmark_w_nika @appsforhumans I am pretty sure it is train as in "practice" :) Please correct me if I am wrong Nika.
minimalist phone: creating folders
Yeah, it was meant like that. Thank you for correcting my English :D
@busmark_w_nika All good! I didn't mean to correct, they are synonyms anyway ;)
minimalist phone: creating folders
To find out what works/doesn't work in your niche and at your stage :)
Another great way to get started when you don't have a clear idea is to go on websites like cofounder's lab and Y combinator cofounder matching and just shop around ideas. This will give you the ability to shop other people's ideas and infrastructure and become a cofounder without the pressure of coming up with the original idea.
If you have a few ideas or paths that you want to test, a great way to get out of analysis paralysis is to just run a smoke test and pick a winner.
My buddy did this. You just develop simple landing pages for your ideas. Then, you run ads to them and ask for payment. Once people submit payment, you don't accept it and say, coming soon.
That way you can see exactly how much money the thing would have made if you built it.