How I Learned to Stop Chasing Hype and Love Boring Ideas
I used to think I needed a "big" idea. You know the one. The AI-powered, paradigm-shifting, venture-backed idea that would get you on the cover of some tech magazine. I’d scroll through my social feed, watching a parade of AI product launches, and feel a familiar anxiety creep in. Build the next big thing, or get left behind.
So I chased it. I brainstormed. I mind-mapped. I lurked in founder communities, desperately searching for an idea that felt shiny, new, and impressive.
Then I realized something: I was doing it all wrong.
The Problem with "Interesting" Ideas
Most advice about finding a startup idea reads like a script for a sci-fi movie. "AI-native," "decentralized platforms," "LLM-first." It's no wonder founders end up building things that sound cool in a pitch deck but solve a problem nobody actually has.
The real issue isn't that new technology is bad—it's that we're obsessed with the hammer instead of the nail. We get so caught up in the "what" (AI! Blockchain! The latest API!) that we forget to ask "why." And when your whole identity is wrapped up in building something "interesting," you can smell the desperation from a mile away.
What Actually Works: Three Places to Find Ideas That Don't Suck
Solve Your Own Annoyances
Instead of hunting for a world-changing concept, just fix something that drives you crazy. The small, recurring, deeply personal stuff.
I saw a founder in a community forum get scoffed at for his idea: a smart chicken coop. His wife got chickens, the coops on the market were terrible, and he just wanted an easier way to collect eggs. It wasn’t "disruptive." But then someone else jumped in: "You have no idea how bad I want this."
Other examples that actually work:
"I'm sick of juggling ten bad websites to follow my favorite motorsport—so I built an app that puts all the schedules in one place."
"I hate trying to remember who borrowed my books, so I'm building a simple app to track them."
These work because they’re real. You can't fake the frustration of a problem you live with every single day.
The key: Your best idea isn't in a trend report. It's probably on your own to-do list, disguised as a complaint.
Find Someone Else's Headache
The biggest opportunities are often hidden in "boring" industries. The problems that accountants, plumbers, and small business owners complain about are the ones they'll gladly pay to make disappear.
Posts that signal real opportunity:
"A guy I know built a tool that just syncs data between different accounting programs. Sounds awful, but he's making bank because every business has this problem."
"Someone should automate compliance paperwork for small manufacturers. It's a nightmare of regulations and potential fines."
The key: Stop talking to other tech founders. Call your cousin who runs a local business and ask them what the most annoying part of their week is. Listen for the sigh. That's where the gold is.
Use New Tech as a Scalpel, Not a Sledgehammer
The "AI idea" approach works, but only if you're using AI to solve a problem in a way that was impossible before. Not just for the sake of it.
Good examples:
"I’m using AI to scan a developer's code and project tickets to analyze performance, not just count lines of code." (Solves the "useless metrics" problem for managers).
"I'm building a bot that checks an influencer's past predictions against real-world outcomes to create a reliability score." (Solves the "who can I trust" problem).
"We're making AI-powered flyers for small businesses that don't have time for Canva." (Solves the "I need marketing materials now" problem).
The key: Don't start with "what can I build with AI?" Start with "what's a problem that's so hard, only something like AI could fix it?"
The Real Rules for Finding an Idea
Every industry is different, but here's what actually matters:
Read the room. Stop looking at what other founders are building. Start looking at what customers are complaining about. The problem is the signal, not the solution.
Be useful first. Solve a problem for yourself or one other person. The founder building the motorsport app solved his own itch first, then discovered thousands of others had it too.
Make your solution obvious. The best ideas don't need a lengthy explanation. "It saves you from getting fined." "It syncs your accounting software." "It makes your chickens less of a hassle." The value is immediate.
Accept that it won't sound sexy. Your idea might be for compliance automation, data plumbing, or chicken coops. That's a feature, not a bug. It means you have less competition and a clearer path to revenue.
What This Actually Looks Like
Here's how this played out in a real forum I was reading.
A founder asked for "interesting startup ideas," and the first few replies were the usual suspects: LLM wrappers and AI-first tools. Then someone dropped the smart chicken coop idea. The original poster was skeptical. But then the thread exploded with other "boring-as-hell" ideas: the accounting sync tool, the compliance software, the niche schedule app.
The conversation shifted from "what's the coolest tech?" to "what's the most painful problem?"
Result: A masterclass in building real businesses. Not because anyone shared a "secret" idea, but because they shared genuine frustrations. The most valuable insights came from people solving tangible, unglamorous problems.
The Long Game
Finding a good idea isn't about a single moment of inspiration. It's about developing a new way of seeing the world—tuning your brain to spot inefficiency and frustration.
This takes time. You have to un-learn the hype. But the payoff is real: when you build something that solves a real, painful, boring problem, you don't have to hunt for customers. They come looking for you.
Getting Started (Without the Mind-Maps)
Pick one part of your own job or hobby that feels stupidly manual.
Spend a week just listening to how non-tech friends and family complain about their work.
Write down one "I wish there was a tool that..." thought every day. Don't filter them.
Find a problem so annoying that people would pay you to make it go away—even if your solution is just a spreadsheet and some elbow grease.
Be patient and pay attention.
That's it. No "disruption." No "paradigms." Just finding a real human problem and solving it.
The Bottom Line
Startup hype works when it doesn't feel like hype. When you're genuinely solving a painful problem, people don't care if it's "boring." They just want the pain to stop. When you're just chasing the next shiny object, they can tell.
The best startup ideas don't feel like innovation. They feel like relief.
And that's not a strategy you can hack—it's just paying attention.