I love reading about patio's success with AR and BBC but I mourn for my own lack of such ideas.<p>How can I go about finding untapped needs in the market?
Here's a few suggestions:<p>- 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?<p>- 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)<p>- 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?<p>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.<p>Good luck!
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.<p>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.<p>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.
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.<p>Most of the material will be based on interviews with these people.<p>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 :)<p>Here's the sign up page for the book: <a href="http://howtofindsaasideas.com/" rel="nofollow">http://howtofindsaasideas.com/</a><p>Feel free to send me ideas for the book as well.
I think the general response from HN would be that you don't find ideas, you find problems.<p>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.