Startup founders lack ideas worth building
18 posts across 6 communities in the last 60 days; 56% from r/startups.
“How is it I can't think of a single useful thing. Most people can't. "Hmmm what startup should I start" is not how hardly any successful startups happen. Founders tend to have a direct connection to the problem they solve through personal experience.”
“Neither is anyone else here, it seems. The lack of ideas is breathtaking.”
“Yeah, I don't think VC investors are at all this evil cabal/broken system. Everybody who thinks they are should try angel investing. At least 80%+ of randoms or people looking for investment have no skin in the game, nothing besides a business plan and some initial paper pushing…”
Multiple startup founders express frustration with the difficulty of finding viable business ideas. Some acknowledge a sense of annoyance and others suggest that existing market presence indicates demand, while empty markets often have underlying reasons.
SOURCES (36)
“Don’t Build Something New You’re Not That Professional to Build something New In the Market No Go Find Something That Ppl Already Buy And try To Make it More Better And Easy to Use Gere You Make Money [re: Who needs research right?🤧]”
“You may need better friends. If you want to truly validate the idea, go talk to a potential customer but don't talk about your idea.”
“Businesses not wanting to try it is data, not a character flaw. The harsh version of "build something people want": the market votes with money and time, and no amount of hustle overrides that vote. Before quitting the game entirely, narrow it down to one pain point and one firm willing to pay something, even tiny. A 9-5 is not surrender either, most founders I respect did stints in between.”
“How is it I can't think of a single useful thing. Most people can't. "Hmmm what startup should I start" is not how hardly any successful startups happen. Founders tend to have a direct connection to the problem they solve through personal experience.”
“You're self sabotaging from the get-go. Pick up any yellow pages or directory and you'll find businesses in all categories and all types that make a decent profit. Every one of these is worthy of being a business. You're out looking for reasons not to start when you could genuinely spin a bottle, pick a business and go for it. If you're even average, you're already better than 50% of your competitors.”
“Yeah, I don't think VC investors are at all this evil cabal/broken system. Everybody who thinks they are should try angel investing. At least 80%+ of randoms or people looking for investment have no skin in the game, nothing besides a business plan and some initial paper pushing work or just slop, no direct experience with the market/product, not a lot of credibility or independently demonstrable ability to execute (if you can't point to anything you've done before and say "I ma”
“Well, it's old school. Wantrepreneurs dismiss anything that didn't happen within the last week. They twist books like Lean Startup into advocating for a launch first, ask questions later approach. Or they just blither out whatever lies support what they were going to do anyway. That's why they refuse to use a search engine -- some fact might come up which invalidates their wishes. Because it would be wishful thinking. You'll see many claim Reddit posts to circle-jerk forums are r”
“There are a million untapped opportunities out there… You are not doing your market research right. That’s why it’s a discipline by itself.”
“More Just Do It dogma. All supply, no research ... no customer discovery ... no market demand. Every builder out there has fallen in love with the product they built in a market blackout. In their singular opinion the product is great, superior, awesome. Yet no customer got a vote on that. Crapping out products market-blind isn't the answer. An online survey asking leading questions while getting three, six, twelve responses is not the answer. The mutual admiration society of forums is not t”
“Well , if u can't find real problems in the market just reflect yourself as the market, think what are the nerve-wracking things you face in your daily routine, it can be a feeling, a thought or whatever And then u have the pivot that you are looking for . Then do the market research Good luck”
“Work at a company and within hours you will realize how foolish aLL tHe g00D iDeaS aRe tAkEn is.”
“Exactly, why should I get paid in stock that’s currently worth nothing when I can basically make 500k a year guaranteed? The only ways it is worth it is I win the lottery by picking the right startup.”
“They might increase the speed of talking, but they also talk more. I've rehearsed a pitch to tight perfection and then on the spot made the pitch woolly and vague again.”
“Does this mean you checked available resources or that you dismissed them outright?”
“Honestly, in this field books do not help nearly as much as trial and error. You’re likely to fail for your first few years but as long as you can hang on eventually you’ll figure out your angle. The problem is you make money providing goods and or services people want in form factor few if any are currently doing, so basically by definition a well selling book won’t help you.”
“Not everything needs to be a startup. You built a useful tool? Cool, but if the markets size is tiny or someone can replicate your product because there is no moat then just acknowledge it is a lifestyle company and don't act like it has unlimited growth potential. I don't think the 500+ AI sales outreach or answering services are each a startup when everyone can make it for themselves in 2 weeks”
“Yeah. I agree. If you want to be a billionaire or a trillionaire you should raise. The odds of that ever being a thing are very, very close to zero but occasionally someone beats the house in Vegas. Most “startups” never become big or cash flowing. Most startups die way before any of those ever happen.”
“Talent exists, but isn’t willing to accept the conditions, so there is near shortage/ a balance.”
“If this is the hard part, entrepreneurship isn’t for you my guy. I’m a serial company builder. Finding so,tensing you’re excited to work on is easy, focusing on something worth focusing on is the hard part. It sounds like you are a builder vs an innovator. That’s fantastic! Find an innovator you respect and Buiko with them.”
“ideas-as-moat is basically over. "so what now" part - occupied doesn't mean everyone in that market is well served. the 9 idea validation platforms you found aren't all serving the same person with the same context and working style. some of those categories are dominated by tools built for one narrow type of user, and the adjacent person who has the same problem but a different background, company size, or level of technical sophistication gets mediocre service or nothing. so”
“Simple - just watch for companies making actual sales; If there are bootstrapped firms that are doing well -> there's real demand”
“Make things to make the world better: If you do not think about money, then just build and release it, and let market decide. Making stuff is a very good hobby. Just have fun.... do not think that much... if it clicks, it clicks, if it does not, it is fine.”
“The fact that a big company already exists isn't necessarily a reason not to build you're looking for something that's dramatically better for a specific group of people, not something that has never existed before a narrow problem with 1,000 people who desperately need a better solution can be more interesting than a revolutionary idea nobody needs.”