I’ve earlier summarized the process of finding and validating ideas here: https://users.aalto.fi/haapanm6/finding-idea-and-validating-saas-business/. I still think that document is a good summary of a playbook for finding ideas, but I’ve been struggling to apply it in practice.
I’ve spent a significant amount of time lately hunting down “unsolved” problems, and I’ve found the process painful and slow. I’m starting to suspect that the Golden Age of easy niche B2B SaaS ideas is behind us. The obvious gaps seem much harder to find in 2026 compared to stories from the early 2010s. It is also possible that the examples I’ve heard about from that era were affected by survivorship bias. I.e., the authors were lucky (though that doesn’t mean they still had to work hard).
It could make sense that the low-hanging fruit has been picked, since many popular books and blogs have been sharing the same playbook for finding ideas for over a decade now. However, it is hard to assess how many potential ideas have been picked, how many are still out there, and at what rate new problems are emerging.
I’m sure there are still many niches that are underserved, and I’m not trying to search for an excuse for my lack of success, but the fact is that I haven’t been successful regardless of the exact reason (hard environment or my own shortcomings), and I should, at least, _try_ to adjust my approach to something that would work better for me instead of just trying to brute-force my way through the same process that hasn’t been working for me.
I’ve been able to identify potential niches and people willing to talk to me, but I haven’t found a recurring problem that people would strongly want to solve. For example, I heard from a friend that they had been frustrated with the tools available for managing mid-sized academic conferences. They had actively looked for solutions and even tried multiple tools. This sounded promising, but when I dug deeper, it turned out the problems they had were not common. Some had problems, but they were often just general annoyances, and not something they were actively trying to solve.
I’ve been forcing myself into cold contacting, but I’ve realized that, combined with the lack of results, it’s starting to negatively affect my overall mood and motivation. This has made me think about Peter Drucker’s advice to “play to your strengths”. I’m starting to wonder if I’m wasting energy trying to do what I’m doing. I expect that entrepreneurship involves doing things you don’t like, but I’m worried the current path will lead to burnout before I even get to the point of building something.
My Evolving View on Competition
From, e.g., Paul Graham, I’ve learned that competition can actually be a good sign. It means there’s a market and customers who are willing to pay for solutions. However, despite this, I think I’ve secretly hoped to find an untapped niche where I could be the first mover.
I think that if someone builds a successful product, one of two things will be true: (1) there is existing competition, or (2) after a while, competition will emerge. The end result, in many ways, is the same: there is competition.
If there were no serious competition, now or later, the space would have to be an untapped, double-sided market or another kind of winner-take-all market, which isn’t the kind of boring niche I’m primarily looking for. Rob Walling has noted that double-sided markets are often not the best fit for small, bootstrapped businesses, as the initial required effort is much higher than in a traditional vertical B2B SaaS. Why would there be no serious competition in a winner-takes-all market? Because it is winner-takes-all. There is no room for competition.
Why I’m Looking at Existing Solutions Now
Instead of the hard way (searching for a hidden problem), I’ve started leaning towards a reverse approach: searching for existing solutions that already make money. My logic is that if a product already exists and has customers, the problem is already validated. I don’t have to guess if people will pay for it. I see this as a shortcut to finding a boring but profitable niche.
Still, finding a suitable existing niche product is not trivial. I’m still working on my playbook. One way is to talk to people the same way I’ve been doing, but I believe I could find other, easier ways for finding potential niches through existing products. I might write more about this in the future.
Finding My Side Door into a Market
To be clear, I’m not thinking about creating a carbon copy of an existing product; I’m looking for a way to serve a sub-niche or do things differently. As an example, I’m currently validating a professional ID photo SaaS in an established market where there could be room for a new player. You can read about it here in my previous post: https://blogs.aalto.fi/nichenavigator/2026/02/11/validating-a-professional-id-photo-saas/
For me, researching an existing market feels like a much more productive use of my energy than trying to pull a problem out of thin air through cold outreach. At least it feels refreshing to try a different approach, because the existing one hasn’t worked. However, I wonder whether I’m just trying to avoid what I should be doing because it’s hard, or whether adjusting the approach makes sense.
Even if I searched for a problem the hard way and found one, it is still likely that I just found a problem that someone else has already solved, but I just didn’t know about it. There is no reward in finding a niche space the hard way. The end result is the same: I’ve got a potential niche with existing solutions, and I need to figure out how to compete with them. I might as well take a shortcut and look for existing solutions directly if it’s easier for me to find potential niches that way.
Where I’m Heading
I’m moving away from the idea of being a pioneer and toward being a refiner. My current plan is to stop searching for unsolved problems and start looking for solved ones where the market has already voted with its wallets, but the solution could be better. This can mean a lot of things: the product might be outdated, have a poor user experience, or be expensive, but it could also mean that a marketing channel is not being fully utilized, or that the product is not targeting a specific sub-niche with slightly different needs.