How We Actually Find Startup Ideas

Most people overcomplicate it.
They sit at their laptop thinking, “Okay, time to invent the next Airbnb.”

That’s not how it works.
The world is already screaming problems at you and you just need to listen in the right places.

For us, one of those places is Reddit.

Reddit is like walking into a stadium full of people ranting about their lives:

• “My dog won’t eat.”

• “Every designer makes my site pretty but nobody makes it convert.”

• “Why doesn’t [X product] exist yet?”

That’s not noise. That’s opportunity.

The trick is, you can’t just scroll Reddit and hope to stumble into gold. It’s too big, too messy. You need a metal detector.

The Metal Detector

At NTE, we use a stack of tools to cut through the noise. One of our favorites and a big reason we’ve logged 5,000+ startup ideas in NTE Pro is a tool called GummySearch.

It basically takes Reddit’s chaos and sorts it for you:

• Surfaces the 10k–100k member subs (the sweet spot: small but growing fast).

• Organizes posts into Pain & Anger, Advice Requests, and Solution Requests.

• Summarizes common patterns so you don’t have to scroll for hours.

Suddenly, instead of endless memes and drama, you’re staring at a clean list of problems people would pay to solve.

The Playbook

Here’s how we use it (and how you can too):

1. Spot the Signal → Go to Trending Subreddits in GummySearch. Forget the giant ones. Look for the weird 10k–100k subs (that’s where unmet needs live).

2. Mine the Pain → Add it to an “audience.” Then click Pain & Anger. That’s where people rant about what’s broken. Next, check Advice Requests (people begging for solutions). Finally, peek at Solution Requests to see what hacks/products they’re already using.

3. Sketch the MVP → Take one of those patterns, whip up a wireframe or landing page in a few hours. No art project, just proof.

4. Bonus: Content → The same process works for content ideas. See what posts blow up in that niche and copy the format.

That’s it. That’s one way we keep the NTE idea machine running.

Why This Matters

We’re not saying GummySearch is the only way we find ideas but it’s one of the best. And it’s exactly one of the reasons we’ve been able to send you one idea every day.

That’s why we partnered with them: if we’re using it to come up with ideas, you should have it too.

👉 Try GummySearch here.
👉 Want 5,000+ ideas already pulled for you? Join NTE Pro.

Happy hunting!