How to Find a Good SaaS Idea (and Actually Validate It)
Most advice about starting a SaaS says you should “validate your idea” before writing any code. That sounds easy in theory, but anyone who has tried it knows it is often much harder than it sounds.
What People Usually Say About Validation
The usual advice looks something like this:
- Create a waiting list and see who signs up
- Launch a simple landing page
- Run surveys and collect feedback
- Ask friends, online communities, or strangers what they think
These methods are not useless, but they often do not give clear answers when you are working on a brand-new idea.
Another problem people rarely talk about is how difficult it actually is to get feedback in the first place.
Most new founders do not already have an audience, a community, or hundreds of followers waiting to test their ideas. In reality, when you post a survey or launch a waiting list, you often get very little response. Sometimes almost none at all. That can feel discouraging and make you think your idea is bad, even when it might not be.
Today, people also sign up for many different reasons. Some are curious. Some want to support you. Some just enjoy trying new things. That does not always mean they would actually pay for your product later.
The same thing happens with feedback. People are often polite, vague, or simply not your target audience.
The biggest issue is this: if the feedback is not coming from the kind of person who would truly become a paying customer, it usually does not help you make better decisions.
The good news is that there are ways to overcome this problem, even if you are starting with no audience at all. I will cover some practical strategies for that in future articles.
The Problem With Brand-New Ideas
If you are building something completely new, getting honest feedback before launch can be very difficult.
You can easily spend months building prototypes, collecting sign-ups, and chasing validation without ever knowing if the idea has real demand. For solo founders, that is a big risk and often a huge waste of time.
A Safer Approach: Follow What Is Already Working
Instead of trying to invent something completely new from scratch, a safer approach is to learn from products that are already succeeding.
Here is a simple way to do it:
- Study products that already work. Look for SaaS apps with active users and clear signs of revenue.
- Find the gaps and frustrations. Use these products yourself. Read reviews, feature requests, and customer complaints. What are users still unhappy about?
- Build a smaller and more focused version. Solve one specific problem better, simpler, or for a more specific group of people.
When similar businesses are already making money, you know there is demand. You are entering a proven market instead of guessing.
Where to Find Successful SaaS Ideas
If you are not sure where to look, here are a few practical places to start:
- Browse SaaS marketplaces and directories. Websites like Product Hunt, Indie Hackers, and AppSumo are full of real SaaS products with user feedback.
- Follow founders building in public. Many solo founders openly share their revenue, growth, and lessons on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, or personal blogs.
- Read founder interviews and startup stories. Communities like Indie Hackers and websites like Starter Story publish detailed stories from SaaS creators.
- Join niche communities. Reddit groups, Discord servers, LinkedIn communities, and industry forums are great places to see what people complain about or recommend.
- Watch for “What tools do you pay for?” discussions. These conversations often reveal which products people truly value.
The key is to look for patterns. Are people repeating the same complaints? Is a certain group being ignored? Are users asking for features that nobody has built yet?
Those are often the best opportunities.
Keep the Idea Small
One of the biggest mistakes founders make is building too much too early.
You do not need a huge vision on day one. Start with something small enough that you can design, build, launch, and market it by yourself within a month or two.
Keeping the scope small helps you avoid endless planning and gets you in front of real users faster.
This approach works especially well for solopreneurs and indie SaaS builders. If you want to learn more about why building solo can be such a strong advantage, check out Who Is a Solopreneur? (And Why They Fit the SaaS Revolution) and Who Is a SaaS Builder? (And Why You Could Be One).
Why Building Solo Works So Well
- You can start immediately without convincing investors or cofounders
- You can change direction quickly if needed
- Smaller projects are easier to finish and launch
- Every hour you spend building helps you learn what real users actually want
Real Example: How I Built “Hey It's Me” by Combining Proven Ideas
Here is how I personally used this approach to launch my SaaS app, Hey It's Me.
While exploring SaaS opportunities, I noticed that AI image generator apps were growing very quickly. Many founders were openly sharing impressive revenue numbers from simple tools that allowed users to create AI-generated images.
I did not discover this through news articles or trend reports. I found it by following SaaS founders on X (formerly Twitter), where many people share their projects, revenue screenshots, and growth updates publicly. This gave me real proof that users were willing to pay for these kinds of products.
At the same time, I noticed that “link in bio” tools like Linktree had become extremely popular among creators and online professionals. These tools were already widely used, and the demand was clearly proven.
That gave me an idea.
What if users could create a personal page, but instead of manually writing everything themselves, they could chat with an AI that asks questions, generates interesting facts about them, and even creates unique AI-generated images for each fact?
The result became a shareable personal mini-site filled with AI-generated visuals, analytics, privacy controls, and a modern design. You can see it at hey-it-is.me or explore the sample pages.
This was not a random guess. I combined two ideas that were already working well:
- AI image generation apps with proven demand
- Link-in-bio tools with strong user adoption
Instead of inventing a completely new market, I added a fresh twist to two proven ideas.
And because I built it solo using the CodeBlock SaaS DevKit, I was able to launch much faster while keeping full control over the product and development process.
If you want to learn how DevKit can help you launch your own SaaS faster, visit codeblock.dev.
Final Checklist for Your Next SaaS Idea
- Start with a proven market. Look for products that already have paying users.
- Choose a smaller niche. Focus on a specific audience or a more specific problem.
- Keep the scope simple. Focus on solving one important problem well.
- Build something you can launch alone. Aim for a product you can finish within 4-8 weeks.
- Learn from real users after launch. Pay attention to how people actually use the product.
If you follow this approach, you will have a much better chance of building something people truly want—and are willing to pay for.