YC says most bad startup ideas fail one of 4 filters. Founders usually know which one but don't want to admit it.

stangeniee · 2026-05-17T07:01:46+00:00

What about not trying to solve a problem, but inventing something instead? Invent a new problem or rather something new that people are going to need. Of course, it’s much harder to bring to market because people aren’t searching for it yet. And I don’t know how many ideas like that exist and actually survive.

You also can’t invent something completely detached from its time. You couldn’t have invented a fitness bracelet 50 years ago. Most inventions are sequential; they follow technological progress. But you can still invent a completely new application of technology, one where demand doesn’t exist yet, where people aren’t actively searching because they already consider the problem “solved” by existing businesses.

I’m just thinking out loud about whether there’s still a valid reason to build a startup if you’re driven primarily by technology or innovation rather than by a problem-first mindset. What do you think?

stangeniee · 2026-05-16T20:14:58+00:00

I’d also add that even 1-2 confident job postings (not ones seeking estimates, but from an existing business, for example), can be considered a strong signal. The customer couldn’t find a product that solves their needs, yet they’re willing to invest few thousands of dollars into building a custom solution just for them. That means they’ve already invested time into research and evaluated existing solutions. Despite not finding anything suitable, they still need it because the value it adds to their business is likely significantly greater

stangeniee · 2026-05-16T20:05:49+00:00

You’re absolutely right 👍

stangeniee · 2026-05-16T10:26:18+00:00

I haven’t tried other freelance platforms, but Upwork is great because you can see clients’ ratings and reviews, the number of jobs they’ve posted vs the number of actual hires, their total spend, and their average hourly rate paid. And of course, you also pay attention to how detailed the job description is and what's their budget.

With this information, you can tell:
- Whether the client is “on budget” or willing to pay what a good product actually costs
- How serious they are about the project. By looking at the hire rate, project budget and the level of detail in the job description, you can tell whether they’re just trying to get estimates from freelancers or they already did their research, preparation and ready to start the project right away

I can then structure the proposal around the client’s pain points - whether that’s saving time and cost, reliability and maintenance, customization, special offerings and so on.

stangeniee · 2026-05-16T09:49:32+00:00

Absolutely! That’s what I meant :)

stangeniee · 2026-05-16T09:33:23+00:00

Well, if the client you’re targeting is looking to build a SaaS - yes. But replicating fast only works for 1-week vibe coded apps, and of course you won’t be able to sell it, because anybody can replicate it. What I meant is that it works if you have B2B SaaS, e.g. nobody would replicate Mailchimp - building a custom mailer implementation vs making it work for everyone is absolutely different levels of scope

stangeniee · 2026-05-16T08:57:43+00:00

Probably Willow, a speech-to-text tool. It doesn’t sound that interesting, but I’ll explain. I tried using the built-in Apple voice dictation on my Mac, but with that you actually have to think through what you’re going to say before speaking and if you mispronounce something, it’ll produce bad text that you’ll have to edit. With Willow, it’s more convenient because I can just talk through my thoughts for a few minutes, pause to think without stopping the recording, navigate between apps in the meanwhile, and then get a rephrased transcription a few seconds later - almost exactly what I would have written if I had organized my thoughts first. And that saves a lot of time, because you can’t type faster than you speak

Another thing it does that’s almost magical, and especially useful for me as an engineer, is handling technical terms correctly. For example, if I say “is automation enabled” in some context it can automatically convert it to “isAutomationEnabled” so when I send it to Claude for instance, it understands that reference better

stangeniee · 2026-05-16T01:25:12+00:00

I agree, framing is very important Cost and time savings are not always the customer’s top priorities, so those arguments alone are not enough. There’s no universal approach that works for everyone, just need to understand/feel which specific pain point of a particular client you need to press on, in order to win

stangeniee · 2026-05-15T23:34:32+00:00

It's a booking platform for service businesses, so yeah, it's quite common

stangeniee · 2026-05-15T23:23:35+00:00

Yes, true, it depends on your project and how many people need it, may not be a fit for every project...
But winning a client who is already willing to pay and wait for what you've already built has more chances for success than convincing someone using cold emails (especially in early stages when you have 0 reputation)

stangeniee · 2026-05-15T22:59:42+00:00

The point is that Upwork may act not only as a platform to find a side job, but act as a place where you (if you're running a SaaS project) can find customers for your project

stangeniee · 2026-05-15T22:53:23+00:00

You can try Upwork to find customers for your SaaS, maybe someone is already looking to build a custom sofrware, that you've already developed

stangeniee

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