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Ask HN: What do people want from SaaS nowadays?

7 points by acuozzo ↗ HN
I have a strong desire to start a SaaS company, so I followed the usual advice of bringing myself to the cusp of a problem domain — twice(!) over the past 13 years — only to come to the realization after considerable investment that any products on the edge would have limited market appeal because both problem domains likely had their heyday 30+ years ago.

I don't regret the time spent as I'm now something of a domain expert in one of the two and I have some neat hobbies to pursue in my down-time.

With all of this being said, here's the question…

*** How can I find problems other people want/need to have solved without diving all the way in or fundamentally changing myself as a person? ***

I have a healthy social life, but my interests and daily activities don't really align with my peers. Outside of the two aforementioned problem domains, I don't have any itches to scratch, but the strong desire to start an SaaS company remains.

5 comments

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SemanticStrengh
People mostly want to develop new friendships but are too afraid to do so.
ffhhj
Mostly communication, relations, design, money making. All of these are saturated. Choose one, try a few solutions, build your own with better features.
altdataseller
If you don’t have a passion for solving a problem, you likely won’t succeed. You can’t go in just wanting to start a company. You have to be passionate about a problem. The company is secondary.
acuozzo
Isn't this essentially the difference between motivation and discipline though?

The standard advice around these parts is that relying on motivation/passion is an easy way to lose steam once the going gets tough. I imagine this is, in part, why Paul Graham recommends pursuing "boring" tech problems.

Plus, I enjoy the means more than the ends. The practice of programming and system building excites me more than what the software/system is built to solve.

altdataseller
You need both IMO. It’s hard to maintain discipline if you don’t have the passion.