The Goldmine Hiding in Plain Sight: Why Smart Founders Hunt Where Others Fear to Tread

Three months after Google Reader died, Feedly had 15 million users. When Vine shut down, TikTok was waiting in the wings. You might think that's just good timing, but there's actually a pattern here that smart entrepreneurs have been quietly exploiting for years.

While most founders are struggling to convince people they need a new solution, there's another approach that's far more reliable: rescuing users from products that are already dying.

Why This Works So Well

Think about the last time a service you relied on shut down. Remember that sinking feeling when you got the email? You probably weren't just disappointed—you were actively searching for alternatives within hours.

That's exactly the situation these strategic founders are looking for. Instead of trying to create demand from scratch, they're finding places where demand already exists and people are genuinely frustrated.

When a beloved product dies, it leaves behind something incredibly valuable: a proven market of engaged users who already understand the problem and are actively looking for solutions. These aren't people you need to educate about why they need your category of product—they're already convinced.

How Products Usually Die

There are four main ways products end up leaving their users stranded:

The Simple Shutdown: A company runs out of money, gets distracted by other priorities, or just can't make the economics work. Users get a few months' notice, then it's over.

The Acquisition Cleanup: A big company buys a smaller one and decides that quirky little tool doesn't fit their enterprise strategy. Out it goes, along with its passionate user base.

The Pricing Shock: Remember when that free tool you used suddenly wanted $30/month for basic features? That's when users start shopping around.

The "Improvement" Disaster: Sometimes companies redesign their product so drastically that longtime users feel completely lost. We've seen this play out with Twitter, Reddit, and countless other platforms.

Each of these scenarios creates the same opportunity: a group of motivated people actively looking for alternatives.

Finding These Opportunities

Here's the thing—you don't need expensive market research to find these situations. Your future customers are already talking about their problems in public.

When Todoist raises prices, head to r/productivity. When Adobe announces changes, check the Twitter replies. When a developer tool gets acquired, browse the Hacker News comments. People are literally telling you what they need, what they'd pay for, and what's wrong with existing options.

But here's what most people get wrong: they see these conversations and immediately jump in with a sales pitch. Don't do that. These are people who just lost something they cared about. Be human about it.

Instead of "Check out my alternative!" try something like: "I've been using [that tool] for years too, and I'm honestly feeling a bit lost without it. I actually started building something to scratch my own itch—it's still early days, but happy to share if anyone wants to take a look."

That's how you build trust instead of destroying it.

Building for Displaced Users

When you're building for people who've been burned before, remember that they're not looking for innovation—they're looking for reliability. Your job isn't to reimagine their entire workflow. It's to give them a stable place to land.

Focus on making it work, making it familiar, and making it dependable. The fancy features can come later, once you've proven you're not going anywhere.

When someone imports their data from the dead platform, everything should just work. When they come back next week, their stuff should be exactly where they left it. This isn't about impressive features—it's about not letting people down.

Make It Easy to Try

Most SaaS companies make you jump through hoops before you can even see their product. Email verification, account setup, billing information—by the time someone gets inside, they've often forgotten why they wanted to try it.

But displaced users are different. They're not casually browsing—they need a solution. They already know your type of product is useful. They just need to know if your specific product is any good.

So let them find out immediately. One click and they're inside, testing your core features. No email required, no setup wizard, no credit card. Just instant access to see if you can solve their problem.

Staying Ahead of the Curve

This isn't a one-time opportunity—products die regularly, and you can systematically watch for these moments.

Set up Google Alerts for phrases like "shutting down" combined with keywords from your industry. Follow key people in your space who tend to share news about product changes. Keep an eye on Reddit communities where your ideal users hang out.

When these opportunities appear—and they will—you'll have days or weeks to position yourself as the solution, rather than months trying to prove that a problem exists in the first place.

The Honest Reality

Building for displaced users isn't glamorous. You're not creating the future or disrupting entire industries. You're essentially providing a safe harbor for people who've been let down.

But safe harbors that work well often grow into thriving ports. And sometimes those ports become major cities.

The entrepreneurs who are quietly building successful businesses right now aren't necessarily the ones with the most groundbreaking ideas. They're the ones who showed up when people needed them, built something reliable, and earned trust one rescued user at a time.

Somewhere out there, your next big opportunity might be getting ready to send that dreaded shutdown email to its users. The question is: will you be ready to help when they need it?