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  • Idea Of The Day - A Wild One: You can build a dating app where exes rate you.

Idea Of The Day - A Wild One: You can build a dating app where exes rate you.

GM. This is Needs to Exist (aka NTE), delivering you a startup idea that may be a little crazy - but worth getting you and your exes thinking.

Todays idea is to get you thinking a little wild, but wouldn’t this be cool. Not interested in it? Sign up for NTE Pro to get 2k+ ideas for only $99

And you can also check out our old newsletters.

Here’s what we’ve got for you today.

  • Daily Idea - Rated by exes

  • If You Build It, will they come?

Exes rate you. Dates await.

The One Liner

Find love, rated by your exes.

The 140 character tweet (or X) version

Dating apps are full of fake profiles and exaggerated bios. This one skips the fluff—your profile is just ratings and reviews from your exes.

The Longer Story Version

The Problem

Dating apps are broken.

Everyone's flexing their best angles, using decade-old photos, and claiming they "love adventures" while binging Netflix in sweatpants. You match, you chat, you meet… and realize the person in front of you is nothing like their profile.

It’s not that people are lying (okay, sometimes they are). It’s that self-representation is biased. You don’t see the red flags, the weird habits, or the things that actually matter in a relationship.

And yet—your exes know.

The Solution

What if your dating profile wasn’t something you wrote… but something others wrote about you?

Here’s how it works:

🔹 Your profile is built by reviews from your exes. They rate different aspects—kindness, communication, emotional intelligence, even something spicy like "most romantic gesture."

🔹 Anonymous but verified. Exes must verify they actually dated you (LinkedIn-style connections or even phone number verification). But reviews are anonymous, so they can be honest.

🔹 Ratings with context. It’s not just a number—it’s insights. Maybe someone is a great communicator but emotionally unavailable. Maybe they’re terrible at texting but amazing in person.

🔹 Filters that actually matter. Want someone who’s highly rated for emotional availability? Looking for a partner whose exes say they’re great at resolving conflicts? Now you can actually filter for meaningful traits.

It’s like Yelp, but for dating. Instead of relying on wishful thinking, you get a real-world preview of who you’re about to date.

How We’d Build It

MVP recipe for chaos (but also genius):

💡 Tech Stack

Why It Needs to Exist

Because "I’m a great communicator" on a profile means nothing.

Because "good vibes only" doesn’t tell you if someone flakes on plans or overuses the crying emoji.

Because dating apps have been the same for a decade—hot pics, clever bios, and endless ghosting.

This changes the game. It’s not for everyone, but if you care about real compatibility (not just good lighting), this might be the last dating app you ever need.

Your Idea Is Fire. Product Is Great.

But It Still May Fail.

So, you built something awesome. Customers love it. They tell their friends. The product works like a charm.

And yet...

It might still crash and burn.

Why?

Because Kevin Costner was wrong.

“If you build it, they will come” is one of the worst lies in business.

The Hidden Risks That Kill Great Products

Marty Cagan, the product guru behind Inspired, originally talked about three risks that every product team needs to overcome:

1️⃣ Value Risk – Do customers actually want it?
2️⃣ Usability Risk – Can they use it effectively?
3️⃣ Feasibility Risk – Can you even build it?

But here’s the kicker—he had to add a fourth risk in the second edition of the book because so many product people ignored it:

4️⃣ Business Viability Risk – Does this make money and actually work as a business?

Most people think if the product is good enough, the business will follow. Nope. That’s how you end up with brilliant products that nobody buys.

Let’s break it down.

🔥 They Love It... But They Won’t Pay

The biggest, most painful lesson in business: likes don’t equal dollars.

Think about how many apps people love that don’t make any money.

  • Clubhouse – Hype machine. Users loved it. Where is it now?

  • MoviePass – Incredible deal. Users raved about it. Completely unsustainable.

  • X (Twitter) – A product millions use daily, yet struggles with monetization.

People can love your product but not enough to pay for it. And if your only monetization plan is “maybe Meta will acquire us for billions,” you’re playing a dangerous game.

🚀 Tools to Validate Pricing & Monetization

✅ ProfitWell – Analyze pricing strategies and churn.
✅ Price Intelligently – Helps set optimal pricing based on customer behavior.
✅ Maven Pricing Experiments – Learn pricing strategy from real-world case studies.
✅ Google Surveys – Run quick surveys to see if people actually want to pay for what you built.

💰 They Want It... But Can’t Justify It

In B2B, the real customer isn’t the user—it’s the buyer. And they care about totally different things.

If your product makes an employee’s life easier, but the manager doesn’t see an ROI, it won’t get purchased.

The secret to winning in B2B? Solve a problem that both the user and the buyer care about. If you’re only solving for one, you’re toast.

🔧 Tools to Understand the Buyer’s Pain Points

✅ Jobs-to-be-Done Framework – Helps you focus on what the buyer really needs.
✅ Wynter – Get feedback from real decision-makers to test positioning.
✅ Navattic – Build interactive demos so decision-makers can experience value upfront.
✅ Gong.io – Use AI to analyze sales calls and see what buyers really care about.

🚀 They Love It... But Not Enough People Do
A niche is great… until it’s too niche.

Tech products are expensive to build. Investors, founders, and employees expect scale. If your total market is too small, you’ll hit a ceiling—fast.

VCs invest based on mass adoption potential. That’s why you see funding flow into AI, fintech, and marketplaces. If your market is small, even complete domination won’t move the needle.

Ask yourself:

  • Is your TAM (total addressable market) big enough to sustain long-term growth?

  • Can you scale beyond early adopters?

  • If you 10x your current success, will you still be small?

If the answers don’t add up, it’s time to rethink the problem you’re solving.

🔍 Tools to Validate Market Size & Demand
🔍 Is It Really a Product Problem?

If sales are slow, most people blame:

❌ The sales team ("They’re not closing!")
❌ The marketing team ("We need better ads!")
❌ The customers ("They don’t get it!")

But 90% of the time, the real issue is product definition.

  • Did you pick a problem people desperately need solved?

  • Did you validate that people will pay for it?

  • Are you targeting a market that’s big enough to matter?

A strong sales team and great marketing can’t fix a fundamentally flawed product.

📊 Tools to Diagnose Your Problem

✅ Superhuman’s PMF Survey – Find out if you have real product-market fit.
✅ Typeform – Run user feedback surveys.
✅ Hotjar – Watch how users interact with your product.
✅ Mixpanel – Track user behavior and retention metrics.
✅ Crystal Knows – Understand buyer psychology better with AI-driven personality insights.

⚡️ The Fix: Make Sure You Solve the Right Problem
You don’t need a better product. You need a better problem.

✅ A problem big enough to justify real money.
✅ A problem that both users and buyers care about.
✅ A problem that scales with demand.

If you’re not sure, it’s never too late to pivot. Every great company has done it. Maybe you should too.

🛠 Tools to Help You Pivot & Optimize

✅ Strategyzer – Business model generation tools.
✅ Miro – Visualize new product ideas and workflows.
✅ UserLeap – Continuous product feedback from users.
✅ Figma – Quickly prototype new ideas.
✅ NoCode Tools (Bubble, Glide, Webflow) – Test new ideas without expensive engineering.

🚀 Next Steps: Audit Your Business Today

Go through your product with brutal honesty:

1️⃣ Is your product solving a problem that’s painful enough for people to pay for?
2️⃣ Are you addressing a big enough market?
3️⃣ Does your pricing actually make sense for the business?
4️⃣ Are your buyers just as excited as your users?

If the answer isn’t a clear “YES” to all four, it’s time to refine, pivot, or rethink your strategy.

🔹 Use the tools above to diagnose and fix the weak spots.
🔹 Test small, iterate fast, and find what works.

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