IdeaBench
Discover your next million-dollar idea
→ Sep 2025
THE IDEA
The goal was to help founders skip brainstorming by giving them a curated list of startup ideas with analysis on monetisation potential, competition, and ease of build. Instead of staring at a blank page, users could pick an idea and start building immediately.
WHAT WENT WRONG
The problem wasn’t demand for ideas, it was differentiation. Founders already had access to idea lists, newsletters, twitter threads, reddit, and free tools that did roughly the same thing. IdeaBench didn’t feel meaningfully better than what already existed, especially not enough to justify paying. Most users browsed the preview, nodded, and left.
LESSONS LEARNED
Competition matters more than idea quality
People rarely pay for information they believe they can get for free
A landing page with interest is not the same as willingness to pay
Distribution is a product, not an afterthought
WHAT'S NEXT
Moving away from generic idea validation tools and focusing on products with built-in distribution or clear pain felt daily. Next time, I’ll test pricing and differentiation before writing the full product.