Why SaaS feels stagnant right now

Every week, I see people complaining that they can't get users, no one wants their product, the competition is too much, SaaS is dead, and so on.

But I don't think SaaS is dead.

AI has made building easier and faster than ever. The areas where people get stuck now are idea validation and marketing. Those are the parts that still require actual work, but they're often overlooked by builders until the reality hits them hard.

The problem is that whenever a successful SaaS comes out, most people start building clones, hoping to catch a few drops spilling from the main pot.

Hundreds of founders end up fighting over those drops, while most of the water is already inside the original pot that got there first. Even if there happens to be enough demand for multiple players, not everyone gets a share.

That's because discovering the tap is what most people overlook.

From the outside, it appears there aren't enough opportunities left to build. But that's only true if you're looking where everyone else is looking.

What a validated idea actually looks like

A validated idea is a problem people genuinely have and are willing to spend money to solve.

The internet has a vast number of people discussing their problems every day, and one of the best places to find honest opinions is Reddit.

Reddit users don't hold back. They share their frustrations, complain about existing solutions, and desperately ask for help with problems that genuinely affect their lives.

For entrepreneurs and founders looking to validate ideas before investing months of development time, learning how to find pain points on Reddit is an incredibly valuable skill.

The surprising thing I noticed

One thing I noticed while researching Reddit is that people are still struggling with surprisingly boring problems.

Not AI agents. Not autonomous workflows. Not whatever trend is currently getting the most attention.

For example, one recurring discussion I found recently was field service businesses struggling with dynamic employee scheduling. Nothing fancy. Just figuring out how to assign the right people to the right jobs when schedules constantly change.

It's not the kind of problem that gets headlines, but for the people dealing with it every day, it's a real frustration. And that's usually where the best opportunities hide.

Not every complaint is a business opportunity

One mistake a lot of founders make is assuming that every complaint is a startup idea.

The goal isn't to collect random complaints. You're looking for signals.

Whenever I evaluate a pain point, I look for three things:

1. Frequency: does the problem keep appearing?

2. Intensity: are people genuinely frustrated by it?

3. Willingness to pay: are they already spending time or money trying to solve it?

One complaint is noise.
Ten complaints are a signal.

That's usually where things start getting interesting.

How I find startup ideas on Reddit

If you're looking for a startup idea that solves a real problem, this is the process I follow:

1. Go to the most relevant subreddit in your niche. Those people are your customers.

2. Find out what they're repeatedly complaining about.

3. Engage with them and ask deeper questions.

4. Keep digging until you find a problem that comes up again and again.

5. Build a simple solution, give it to them for free, and iterate based on real feedback.

The process sounds simple, but most people stop after step two. They find a complaint and immediately jump into building.

The real insights come from staying in the conversation longer than everyone else.

Finding the right communities

Not all subreddits provide quality insights. Some are too broad, some are full of self-promotion, and some simply don't have enough activity to reveal patterns.

I usually look for communities with:

• At least 10,000 members

• Regular activity with daily posts and comments

• Engaged in discussions with multiple comments per post

• Authentic conversations instead of constant promotion

You're looking for places where people naturally discuss problems, not places where everyone is trying to sell something.

What to search for

A simple trick is to search for phrases that naturally reveal frustrations.

Things like:

• "my biggest struggle"

• "my biggest fear"

• "issues"

• "challenge"

• "difficulties"

• "hardships"

• "pain point"

• "barriers"

• "obstacles"

• "concerns"

• "frustrations"

• "worries"

• "hesitations"

• "what I wish I knew"

• "what I regret"

• "struggling with [topic]"

These discussions often contain more useful insights than posts where people are directly asking for recommendations.

Don't treat this as one-time research

One thing that's easy to miss is that pain points evolve.

Industries change. New tools emerge. Customer expectations shift. What frustrated people six months ago may have a completely different solution today.

That's why I don't see this as research that you do once and forget about. The best founders develop a habit of checking their target communities regularly and staying close to the conversations happening there.

Talk to people directly

Reading discussions is a great starting point, but eventually you need to talk to people.

Ask them why they think the problem exists. Ask what they've already tried. Ask what's frustrating about the current solutions. Ask what an ideal solution would look like.

The deeper you go, the easier it becomes to separate genuine opportunities from surface-level complaints.

You're not just trying to find problems. You're trying to understand them.

Look for signs people will actually pay

One of the strongest signals is purchasing intent.

Comments like:

"I'd pay for something that does this."
or
"I'm using an expensive tool right now, but I hate it."

tell you much more than someone saying: "That's a cool idea."

People who are already spending time, money, or effort to solve a problem are often the people most likely to pay for a better solution.

Make sure the market is big enough

A pain point affecting 50 people might be real, but it may not be enough to sustain a business.

Try to estimate the potential market size by:

• Looking at subreddit membership in relevant communities

• Researching the industry beyond Reddit

• Estimating what percentage of people experience the problem

The goal isn't just to find pain. It's to find pain at scale.

Take your findings back to the source

Once you've identified a recurring problem, go back to the people discussing it.

Send follow-up messages and ask questions like:

• How much time or money does this problem cost you?

• What have you already tried to solve it?

• What would an ideal solution look like?

• Would you be interested in testing a beta version?

At that point, you're no longer guessing what people want. You're having conversations with potential customers before you've even built the product.

Why I built ideaFast

I did all of this manually for a long time.

Reading discussions, tracking recurring complaints, organizing notes, and trying to figure out which problems were actually worth paying attention to.

Eventually, I got tired of digging through hundreds of conversations, so I built ideaFast to automate the process and take me directly to the discussions that matter.

But honestly, whether you use ideaFast or do everything manually doesn't really matter.

The process itself is completely free.

The lesson remains the same

Building products has never been easier.
Building the right product is where the real jackpot is.

You can spend months building features nobody asked for, or you can spend time understanding what people are already struggling with.

Don't look for startup ideas.
Look for customer pain.
The ideas usually reveal themselves after that.

All the best, builder.

Originally published on ideaFast. Read the original version here.