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Ask HN: untapped SaaS niches

13 pointsskarmklart16 comments

I love reading about patio's success with AR and BBC but I mourn for my own lack of such ideas.

How can I go about finding untapped needs in the market?

Here's a few suggestions:

- Don't expect to find an undiscovered market. Instead, look to see what existing competitors there are in a particular market. Are they dated? Tired looking? Do they have a terrible UX? Is their pricing model geared toward only Enterprise customers, leaving the small-and-middle business tier underserved?

- Look within a crowded market and see if there's a niche within the market you can serve where the other products are simply too generic to handle their needs (for example, is there an invoicing solution for just auto-parts vendors instead of just an invoicing solution for everyone)

- Start surfing forums where customers of a particular SaaS solution hang out. Are any of them complaining about how bad existing solutions are? Can you fix that problem in a way the competition can't?

Those are a few ideas. There are probably more. Most it will depend on your level of interest and desire to dig into this kind of info as a whole.

Good luck!

Good ideas, thanks. But overwhelming. Where to start?

I've often found that asking friends "hey what problems do you have in your day job, what software do you need" results in a pretty disappointing exchange. They try to help but they often don't realize their own burning issues.

I've always found better results by asking "when are you busiest at work. What part of the day/year is the most stressful". Then you can follow up by asking why, what are the tasks that slow you down. Then you get a much more relaxed conversation where daily frustrations flow.

Most people tend to think struggles & pressures are just part of their job. It's up you to filter through & see where software could provide a simple solution.

Yeah, that's a good point.

Dane Maxwell asks people what the most painful part of their day is:

http://mixergy.com/dane-maxwell-foundation-interview/

http://mixergy.com/listen-to-dane-maxwell-call-a-prospect-an...

I actually am determined to write a book on this topic, and I have managed to get a nice list of big HN celebs (and others) onboard for the project.

Most of the material will be based on interviews with these people.

Hopefully I will have found a SaaS idea of my own as well before I start writing the book, so I can practice what the book preaches :)

Here's the sign up page for the book: http://howtofindsaasideas.com/

Feel free to send me ideas for the book as well.

I submitted my email and got "Float does not support quirks mode. Please set a valid doctype" or something to that effect.

That sucks. Not much I can do though since I use a third party service (launchrock.com)

No matter what SaaS offering you decide on, plugging holes in your conversion funnel will be one of your top priorities. 'Not much I can do though' is the wrong attitude to take here.

At the very least you should be getting in touch with your third-party service to make sure this isn't common and providing an alternate way for this commenter to get you his email address and get on your list - something which could be as simple as having him email it to you.

Good points and duly noted.

I'll reach out to caw.

Sorry for the trouble dude.

No trouble whatsoever.

Sorry on my end if the tone came across the wrong way - on re-reading my comment, it sounds snarkier than I intended.

No offense taken.

Same for me (using mobile Safari)

I think the general response from HN would be that you don't find ideas, you find problems.

I'm interested in following a similar path (lifestyle business, software related), but I don't feel confident going out and asking people about their business problems. I've thought about going to my friends, but most of them are in programmers or (I feel) not in a position to know of good problems that the business they work at would pay money for.

Where do I start though? Which business? How do I reach out? What do I offer them for them to answer my questions?

Yeah those are my questions as well. I'd feel more comfortable going to my friends, but I'm not sure that would get me anywhere.

Many of SAAS and niche application successes came out of the founders' own frustrations and their work on making their tasks easier. They themselves saw something they know was broken that they could could fix or improve. They were knowledgeable in the field and worked with it. Going into a field where you have no expert knowledge would be a daunting task, as you not only have to create a solution but also learn what the problem is exactly.

Another venue is doing tech support, you get to see what technology is in places as well as what systems are woefully inadequate (sometimes the potential customers don't even know they can improve their process...) Maybe you can start by automating something from them and learn the ropes of the industry and then expand that into a service.

Friends and family are a good start, older ones might have a bit more insight on what they see isn't working, and they have the expert knowledge to help you along with creating a solution.

What do you offer them, if they provide essential knowledge: part stake in the undertaking, because they probably are also your inside network connection. Second being part of the process of fixing or creating better solutions is a draw, we are talking people with first-hand frustrations, they probably would get a kick out of helping see a solution come into creation. Thirdly, money never hurts.

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