How to find a Great “One Person” Profitable Startup Idea

For the past two weeks, we’ve (Piyush & Animesh) examined over 500 products built by solopreneurs and indie hackers. Some of these products failed, while others are thriving, growing, generating revenue, and even receiving acquisition offers.

Inspired by these successes, we’ve chosen three ideas and are currently developing our own product. As we’re product and marketing-focused, we’re already building our distribution strategy while our developers work on the product itself.

The Idea Goldmine: Where to Dig

• Pain Point Prospecting: Your frustrations are fertile ground for innovation. Remember how Uber was born from the simple annoyance of not being able to hail a cab? Your life experiences might seem limited, so keep your ears open to problems during conversations with friends. Almost everyone rants about something at some point — this could be your idea goldmine.
• Trend Surfing: Ride the wave of emerging technologies. Did you know ChatGPT reached 1 million users in just 5 days? The AI revolution is just one of many trends ripe for the picking. People are building incredible innovations every day; you just need to see enough data points to start recognizing trends.

Pro tip: Nearly 90% of builders launch their products on Product Hunt — it’s a great place to spot emerging trends.

• Industry Intersection: Some of the most revolutionary ideas happen at the crossroads. Airbnb combined travel with the sharing economy. What industries could you merge? Look for unexpected connections between different fields.

As Naval Ravikant says, “Not everything can be taught, but everything can be learned.”

Your Million-Dollar Action Plan

1. Carry a notebook (physical or digital) everywhere. Ideas strike when you least expect them! We use our phone’s notes app to jot down ideas on the go, then set aside an hour each weekend to review and distill them.
2. Set a goal to list 3 problems you encounter daily for the next week. Your next big idea might be hiding in plain sight. Whether you’re reading an article, listening to a podcast, or hearing a friend complain about Wi-Fi or relationship issues, always ask: What’s the root cause? How can this be solved? It takes time to build these mental muscles, but once you develop them, you’ll see problems waiting to be solved everywhere.
3. When brainstorming ideas, suspend judgment. Don’t start filtering based on your perceived capabilities. The first step is to let ideas flow freely. Developers often fall into the trap of immediately thinking about the tech stack and how to build the product, rather than diving deep into the problem statement itself. Remember: great ideas often seem impossible at first.

The Delta 4 Approach: Kunal Shah’s Framework for Billion-Dollar Ideas

Delta 4 framework by Kunal Shah

Kunal Shah, the founder of CRED and FreeCharge, developed the Delta 4 framework to identify and analyze high-potential startup ideas.

1. Identify a Delta 1 behavior and its Delta 4 counterpart

• Delta 1: What behavior is already popular and doesn’t need convincing? (e.g., people love to save money)
• Delta 4: What’s the aspirational version of this behavior, 4 steps ahead? (e.g., getting cashback on credit card bills)
• Your idea should bridge the gap between Delta 1 and Delta 4, creating value in the process.

2. Assess the market size and growth

• Is your target market for the Delta 4 behavior big enough and growing?
• A small but rapidly expanding market can be more attractive than a large, stagnant one.
• Use tools like Google Trends, industry reports, and market research to gauge potential demand.

3. Evaluate the friction and problem intensity

• How much friction exists between Delta 1 and Delta 4? The more friction, the bigger the potential reward for solving it.
• Rate the problem intensity on a scale of 1–10, where 10 is “hair on fire” urgent. The more intense the problem, the more likely people are to pay for a solution.

4. Define your unique value proposition

• How does your solution help people move from Delta 1 to Delta 4?
• What makes your approach 10x better than existing alternatives?
• If you can’t articulate a clear, compelling advantage, you might need to refine your idea.

5. Consider frequency of usage

• As per the Delta 4 approach, ideas that can be used daily or weekly have a higher chance of success than those used annually or less frequently.
• How often will people engage with your solution as they move from Delta 1 to Delta 4?

6. Assess your execution capability

• Do you have the skills, resources, and passion to bring this Delta 4 idea to life?
• Building a startup is a marathon, not a sprint. Make sure you’re equipped for the journey from Delta 1 to Delta 4.

7. Validate with potential users

• Test your Delta 4 concept with potential customers or industry experts.
• Are people excited about moving from Delta 1 to Delta 4? If you can’t find anyone enthusiastic about your idea, it might be a red flag.

Remember, no idea is perfect from the start. The key is to find an idea with enough potential to warrant further exploration and development. This is the exact framework we use, to come up with potential startup ideas, and by far this is the best approach we figured out.

Here’s a tip: Before jumping to build on the idea, build a landing page using ConvertKit or WordPress, run $5 Google ads and get people on a call. This will help you niche down the problem, get paying clients even before building the product and reach a scalable version sooner.

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