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Keepsake Project Management, Freelancers, DesignersStartup ideas on Reddit: 12 subreddits where people share problems and ideas
The best subreddits for startup ideas are the ones where people ask for things: r/SomebodyMakeThis and r/AppIdeas for requests, r/Startup_Ideas and r/startupideas for pitched concepts, r/SideProject and r/SaaS for what builders are making, and r/selfhosted and r/smallbusiness for complaints about tools. Read them for the problems people describe, not for finished ideas. This page lists 12, how to use each, and how to turn a thread into a testable idea.
Why use Reddit to find startup ideas?
Reddit is a large archive of people describing a problem in their own words, for free, to strangers. That is what you want when you are looking for something to build. A pitch tells you what the author hopes is true. A complaint tells you what already annoys someone enough to write it down.
It also has limits. Upvotes measure interest in a post, not willingness to pay. Many threads are one person's passing frustration. And the loudest communities are full of people promoting their own products. So the habit that works is to read for patterns across many threads, and to treat a single post as a lead, not as proof.
For places beyond Reddit, read where to post app ideas. For turning what you find into something you can check, read how to validate an app idea.
Which subreddits are for app ideas and requests?
These communities exist to hold ideas or requests. They are the most direct answer to the query, and also the noisiest: many posts are one-line wishes with no detail. Use them to spot repeating themes, then go to a more specific community to learn who has the problem.
01 r/SomebodyMakeThis
A community named for its job: someone describes a thing they wish existed and hopes a builder takes it on.
- Best for
- Seeing unfiltered consumer wishes from non-builders.
- How to use it
- Sort by top for a past month or year, and look for requests that several people say they want too.
- Watch out for
- Wishes that need a huge company, or a product that already exists but the poster has not found.
A request here is useful because the person is not a founder. They describe the outcome they want, not a feature list. When you find a request, first search for whether the thing exists. If it does, the real gap may be discovery or price. If it does not, check whether the commenters describe the same need in different words.
1. Does the poster describe a situation (who, when, how often)? 2. Do at least three other people say they would use it? 3. Can the smallest version be built in a weekend? 4. Does a search for the idea turn up an existing tool? 5. Is there a person I can message who has this problem? Score 4 or 5 yes: write a one-page spec. Score 2 or less: move on.
02 r/AppIdeas
A community for app concepts, where people describe an idea and ask what others think.
- Best for
- Practising how to judge a concept from a short description.
- How to use it
- Read the comments, not the posts: the replies that say 'this exists as X' or 'I would not pay' are the research.
- Watch out for
- Concepts with no stated user, and posts that ask for a free developer.
Many posts are idea-first, which is the weakest starting point, but the comments often name competitors and objections. Collect those. A thread with five replies naming the same competitor tells you the market is real and gives you something to compare against.
If you have an app idea you will not build, you can also post it here. Posts on the board are permanent and come with a generated build prompt; see post your idea.
03 r/Startup_Ideas and r/startupideas
Two communities for pitching and discussing startup concepts, aimed at businesses more than single apps.
- Best for
- Seeing how people frame a business idea and what feedback they get.
- How to use it
- Read the objections. Ask yourself whether you could answer each of them with a cheap test.
- Watch out for
- Two similar names. Check which one you are in, and read its sidebar rules.
Third-party directories list both names. They overlap in tone: idea posts, early feedback and a lot of general advice. Treat them as practice rooms for pitching, and as a place to see which objections come up again and again, such as unclear customers, no distribution and no reason to pay.
04 r/Business_Ideas
A broad community for business concepts of every kind, not only software.
- Best for
- Non-software businesses that a website or small tool could support.
- How to use it
- Use it as a secondary source: an idea you found elsewhere that also appears here has more support.
- Watch out for
- Fantasy ideas with no customer evidence.
One third-party ranking calls it the most obvious subreddit for ideas, and not the highest quality. That is a fair way to use it: a place to cross-check, not to start. Local services, trades and physical products show up here, and each is a possible customer for a small tool you build.
Which subreddits show what other builders are making?
Builder communities are the opposite of request communities. People post what they made, and the useful data is in the gaps: which products get asked for a feature that does not exist, and which categories have many launches and few paying users.
01 r/SideProject
A place for people to show projects they are building, from first prototypes to launched products.
- Best for
- Seeing what gets built, and which launches draw real questions.
- How to use it
- Read the comments under launches for missing features, and note which ones several people ask for.
- Watch out for
- Launch posts that are mainly adverts.
A feature request under someone else's launch is a small, tested piece of demand. If three people ask a project for the same missing thing, that thing may be a product, or at least a reason to build a competitor that has it.
It is also a place to show what you built from a board idea. Say plainly which idea it started from.
02 r/SaaS
A community for software-as-a-service founders talking about pricing, churn, onboarding and tools.
- Best for
- B2B product problems and how founders talk about them.
- How to use it
- Search for threads that begin 'how do you handle' and note the manual workarounds people describe.
- Watch out for
- Promotional posts dressed as questions.
A founder asking 'how do you handle failed payments' or 'what do you use for customer interviews' is describing a workaround. A workaround is a gap. The buyers are other software founders, a market that is easy to reach and often tolerates early products.
03 r/microsaas
A community for small, often solo, software products built for a niche and run lean.
- Best for
- Narrow product shapes you could build alone.
- How to use it
- Study the posts about the first ten customers, and which niche each found.
- Watch out for
- Revenue claims you cannot check.
The value here is shape, not secrets. You see what a one-person product looks like: one job, one buyer, a clear price. Compare that to the ideas in micro SaaS ideas and SaaS ideas for solo founders.
04 r/indiehackers
A community for independent makers building profitable products, including build-in-public updates.
- Best for
- How small products find their first customers.
- How to use it
- Read post-mortems for the reasons things failed, since those repeat.
- Watch out for
- Advice from one person's single case.
Ideas themselves are scarce here compared with lessons. A pattern such as 'we built it, nobody found it' is a reminder that distribution is the project. Pair it with how to launch without an audience.
Which subreddits are full of complaints you could fix?
The best idea sources are often communities that are not about startups at all. People who use a tool every day describe what is wrong with it, in detail, and say what they would pay for. Technical and small-business communities do this the most.
01 r/selfhosted
A community of people who run their own software on their own servers and compare tools in detail.
- Best for
- Specific tool gaps, from users who are technical and short on time.
- How to use it
- Search for 'looking for an alternative to' and 'is there anything that does', and list the features people name.
- Watch out for
- Buyers who prefer free software and will not pay.
One directory ranks it first for idea density because people state exactly what a tool should do. The catch is willingness to pay. A good build here is a hosted version that saves them the work, or a paid add-on for a free tool.
"looking for an alternative to" "is there anything that does" "I wish there was a way to" "I currently use a spreadsheet for" "too complicated for what I need"
02 r/smallbusiness
A community where owners of small businesses ask for help with the daily running of their shops, trades and services.
- Best for
- Non-technical buyers with real budgets and manual processes.
- How to use it
- Look for questions about scheduling, invoicing, quotes and reviews, and note the tools they already use.
- Watch out for
- Local rules that differ by country.
A small business owner describing a weekly chore in a spreadsheet is a customer with a task you can automate. The idea is rarely exciting, which is the point: boring tasks with a paying owner make small, steady products. Read problems that need solving for more of this style.
03 r/Entrepreneur
A very broad community for business owners and would-be owners, on topics from sales to hiring.
- Best for
- Spotting trends and the language business owners use.
- How to use it
- Read to learn vocabulary and recurring frustrations, not for finished ideas.
- Watch out for
- A high share of self-promotion and generic advice.
Because it is so broad, signal per thread is low. Use search for a specific pain, such as 'chasing late invoices', and read the top results from the past year rather than the front page.
04 r/startups
A large community for startup strategy, fundraising questions and founder experiences.
- Best for
- Seeing what early-stage founders struggle with.
- How to use it
- Read feedback threads for the reasons ideas are criticized, and apply them to yours before posting.
- Watch out for
- Strict moderation on promotion.
Founders asking each other for tools are describing a market of founders. You can serve that market, but you can also borrow the discipline: a thread where an idea is picked apart is free pre-mortem material.
How do you turn a Reddit complaint into a startup idea?
Collect before you decide. Open a spreadsheet, and for each thread you save, record who has the problem, what they do today, and how they described it. After about thirty rows, the repeated ones are your shortlist.
| Phrase in a thread | What it means | Next question |
|---|---|---|
| "Is there a tool that" | Person searched and did not find one | Does one exist under another name? |
| "I use a spreadsheet for" | A manual workaround exists | What breaks in the spreadsheet? |
| "I would pay for" | Stated willingness, not proof | How much, and how often? |
| "Every month I have to" | Recurring task | Could a script do it? |
| "Why is there no" | Perceived gap | Is there a reason it does not exist? |
| "I gave up on" | A tool failed them | What did they try, and why did it fail? |
To find threads without browsing, use a search engine with a site filter, for example site:reddit.com/r/SomebodyMakeThis "is there an app", and sort Reddit's own search by top for a time range. Do the reading yourself, and respect each community's rules and Reddit's terms if you consider anything automated.
Date saved | Subreddit | Thread link | Who has the problem | What they do today | Quote (short, in their words) | Times seen across threads | Can I build a first version in 2 weekends? (Y/N) | Person I can ask (Y/N)
Below are 30 rows of notes I wrote myself about problems people described. Group them into themes. For each theme: name it in 5 words, list which rows belong to it, say what the people are doing today, and suggest the smallest tool that would replace the workaround. Do not invent details that are not in my notes. Flag any theme that has fewer than 3 rows as weak.
Pasting your own notes into a model is fine. Do not invent posts, and do not quote a thread as if it proved demand from many people. A quote is one person.
What should you do once you have found a problem?
Message two or three of the people who posted, if the community allows it, or reply in the thread with a question. Ask what they do today and what the last time cost them. Then build the smallest thing that removes one step, and give it to them.
- If you want to build it, follow how to scope an MVP and write the prompt with how to write an app build prompt.
- If you find an idea you do not want to build, post it on the board with the evidence you saw, so a builder can take it.
- If you want ideas already written up with a build prompt, browse the board.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best subreddits for startup ideas?
The most direct are r/SomebodyMakeThis, r/AppIdeas, r/Startup_Ideas and r/startupideas, where people post requests and concepts. For deeper problems, read r/selfhosted, r/smallbusiness, r/SaaS and r/microsaas, where users complain about tools they use daily. Read several, since one thread is a lead and a pattern across threads is evidence.
Is Reddit a good place to find SaaS ideas?
Yes, for problems, less for ideas. Subreddits like r/SaaS, r/microsaas and r/selfhosted show manual workarounds and missing features in users' own words. That is useful research. It is not proof that anyone will pay, so follow a promising thread with direct conversations and a small test before you build.
Can I post my startup idea on Reddit?
Often yes, but each community has its own rules on promotion and format, so read the sidebar first. Communities named for ideas, such as r/AppIdeas and r/Startup_Ideas, expect idea posts. Posting does not protect the idea or guarantee a builder. If you will not build it, the board also keeps it permanently with a build prompt.
How do I find problems people complain about on Reddit?
Search for phrases like 'is there a tool that', 'I wish there was' and 'I use a spreadsheet for' inside a relevant subreddit, sort by top for the past year, and save promising threads in a spreadsheet. After about thirty, group them by who has the problem. Repeated problems from different people are your shortlist.
Are Reddit startup ideas reliable?
Treat them as leads. Upvotes show interest in a post, not willingness to pay, and many ideas are fantasies without a customer. A reliable idea has a specific person, a described workaround and several independent mentions. Check it with a few direct conversations and an existing-tools search before you build anything.
What other places have startup ideas besides Reddit?
Y Combinator publishes Requests for Startups, Hacker News has Ask HN threads, Indie Hackers has build logs, and GitHub has idea lists. Our guide to where to post app ideas covers these. The board you are on also holds ideas people will not build, each with a generated build prompt.
Created with AI assistance and edited for this site. Examples are illustrative and do not represent customer research. About the publisher.