Boring product, sweaty startup
jasonleow • 9 Jan 2022 •
New year, new project(s).
I keep coming back to this idea recently – create a boring product for a well-understood problem within a saturated market. One that isn’t curve-jumping, industry-disrupting, world-changing.
Something emotionally unimpressive but empirically profitable.
A sweaty startup even. Something that requires a little hands-on, manual grunt work (but not too much). An industry that’s not usually tech-savvy perhaps, that will have outsized gains from tiny implementation of tech.
Some obvious benefits here:
• It’s a well-understood problem, so no need to guess if people will pay for it.
• It’s a saturated market, meaning there’s definitely demand for it.
• It’s boring, so unlikely that you’ll get competition from the smarter folks.
• Not so bleeding edge that nobody understands it, so less risk and marketing is easy.
• Sweaty entails even less people/competitors are inclined to do so.
• Not tech-savvy means I can get some advantage by bringing in some tech to automate the space
Thing is, I’m no longer looking to create something cool, something to impress myself and others.
Been there, done that.
Right now, this, year, I just want to make good profit and a good living off of it. Create a comfortable life for my wife and kid, and my parents.
It’s boring yeah.
But nobody’s going to say that when you make $10k every month off it.
Going back to build mode in 2022!
Time to hunt down ideas for boring products and sweaty startups.
Comments
The most top of mind for me are utility services like plumbing, cleaning, home repair, electrician, etc – these could benefit from just a tiny bit of tech. But it could also be the usual saturated SaaS markets we’re all familiar with - website builders, to-do apps, job boards. Just need a niche angle perhaps and it’s good to go! Still thinking and looking and considering what I might want to venture into…
That’s a smart business plan. I like how you’re defining the conditions you’re looking for. This reminds me of Warren Buffet’s investment strategy, where he’s looking for companies that are undervalued instead of trying to predict the market. Do you have any examples of existing products that are like this?