Best Tech Startup Ideas for 2024

In this post, we’ll discuss how to pick an Software Idea from scratch and tips to evaluate your tech startup idea. We’ll also share some software ideas you can building as a solo founder or with a small team along with some examples of profitable tech startups with revenue.

5 tips to evaluate your tech startup idea

Certain factors must be considered when evaluating your startup idea:

A good tech startup idea focuses on providing solution to an existing problem for which people are willing to pay for. Kevin Hale, the co-founder of Wufoo and a partner at Y Combinator shared insights on identifying the right problem to pick:

Popularity: Work on problems that are popular and avoid ones having too small a market size.
Growth: Try to focus on problems that are growing faster as compared to others.
Urgency: Problems that need urgent solution are good to target.
Cost: Problems that are expensive can help you earn more revenue.
Mandatory: Consider focusing on problems that people are required to solve (due to regulatory requirement or some other essential need).
Frequency: Good problems are frequent ones which that need to be solved repeatedly.

Invest time in doing market research to evaluate the potential of your software idea. Understanding the target market and understanding the customer needs is crucial to building a profitable startup.

Identify what differentiates your tech startup. Analyze your competitors and evaluate how your idea is better than the existing ones and fills any gaps.

Evaluate the feasibility of your idea. See if you’ve the required expertise, time and resources to build it in a reasonable time frame

Validate your idea and your reach to potential customers by building a minimum viable product (MVP) and getting feedback from initial users.

Also see this section on reasons of tech Startups failure in our earlier post.

How to come up with Software Ideas

Picking up the right software idea for your startup isn’t straight forward. A few pointers to help you in your brainstorming process:

Deciding a niche is the first step in finding a good idea for your tech startup. Pick one in which you have experience and expertise or you are very passionate about. This way you’ll have a deep understanding of the existing problems in that field and will be able to come up with an idea for a viable solution.

Spend time to analyze existing tech startups in your chosen niche. ProductHunt, IndieHackers, G2 and others can be a good starting point to explore. We compiled a list of websites that will be helpful in your research [[Link to post 1]]. Try to find any gaps for which there’s no solution or the existing one can be improved in any way.

MicroSaaSIdeas - A newsletter run by me where you can find more than 1000+ profitable Micro SaaS ideas and other profitable products with deep-dive reports across 90+ SaaS niches. The content covers a wide range of niches, gives deep-dive reports across various niches, explains marketing chops/technical chops, and talks about cost analysis to cater to a hundred customers for a given idea.

Keep an eye on emerging technologies can give you an early opportunity to solve any existing problem in an innovative way.

The reviews of apps on app stores and review sites can be a good resource. Pay attention to negative reviews as these present a good opportunity to build a product that addresses the shortcomings of an existing one.

You can also acquire a SaaS/Micro-SaaS instead of building from scratch. See our guide on buying a SaaS business and SaaS metrics that offers some good insights and tips.

Simple Software Ideas for Startups with smaller teams

Simple Knowledge Base portals

There are many sophisticated platforms like GitBook to create user guides, documentation for SaaS products, APIs, etc. But people still look for simple alternatives that are built on simple products like Google Drive, Notion, Coda, etc. Create a simple knowledge base portal creation software that doesn’t make it complex with features. For inspiration see, HelpKit.so, a website/knowledge base builder that is built for the Notion audience has crossed $1800 MRR in 6 months. HelpKit dealt with the problem differently. HelpKit used Notion as its base and converted the content from Notion into an easy and usable Knowledge Base portal. While most Enterprise customers don’t like a system like this, but still there are many users who like a simple portal for their user guides and documentation portals.

Marketplace for Podcast Sponsorships

Obtaining sponsorships for podcasts can be quite challenging, especially if you don't have extensive connections within your podcast's niche market. It can also be a time-consuming process, requiring significant effort and networking. By building a micro platform dedicated to facilitating connections between brands and podcasters, the process becomes much simpler and more efficient. Such a platform streamlines the sponsorship-seeking process, allowing podcasters to find suitable advertisers and vice versa. This eliminates the need for extensive networking and reduces the time investment required to secure sponsorships. Create a Micro Platform that makes it easier for brands and podcasters to connect. Note that building marketplaces takes a lot of time but once it works, you will have an exponential growth. Podcorn.com is one of the examples if Influencers marketplaces. Podcorn was founded in 2018, it was acquired in 2021 with an upfront cash payment of $14.6 million.

Video/PDF/Word Content to Notes/Summary/Questions Generator

Create a Micro SaaS product that can simply take video content or a PDF file content or a Word document and can generate notes/summary and questions automatically from that content. This will greatly help people who consume a lot of content from videos/PDFs/Word docs and want a faster and better way to improve their learning. This product would be incredibly useful for students, professionals, and anyone who consumes a lot of content from videos, PDFs, and Word documents. It would save them time and energy by automatically generating notes and questions from the content, allowing them to quickly review and understand the material. It would also help them to better retain the information, as they would be able to quickly review the notes and questions generated from the content. For example, see Mindgrasp.ai which summarizes course material into key points to help people learn faster and understand more.

Design Tool for Improving Product Images

E-commerce vendors often struggle to create high-quality product images that accurately showcase their products. This is a problem because customers rely on these images to make purchasing decisions, and poor quality images can lead to lost sales. Designing these images can be time-consuming and difficult for vendors who may not have a background in graphic design. Also, doing this at scale takes huge efforts too. A Micro SaaS product that provides a design tool for improving product images can help solve these issues by providing an easy and efficient way for vendors to create professional and attractive product images that will help drive more sales. This solution can also be converted into an API only version too if you don’t want to handle the UI part of the application. See PhotoRoom.comfor some inspiration. Glorify is currently at $2.7K in monthly revenue. PhotoRoom's estimated annual revenue is currently $1.4M. Received $19.1M in funding. The app got 40 million downloads on iOS and Android and 7 million monthly active users. There are also tools that are specific to E-commerce platforms like Shopify. For example, Pixc’s Shopify app estimated annual revenue is $2.8M.

Some good tools in this space: Glorify.com, Spyne.ai, PhotoRoom.com, MagicStudio.com

Micro SaaS for Gmail Merge Tool

Gmail Mail Merge is a feature that allows users to send personalized emails to multiple recipients using Gmail. It can be done using a Google Sheet, where recipients' information is stored and merged with a template email to generate individualized emails. The feature allows users to automate the process of sending bulk emails while still maintaining a personal touch. With Mail Merge, users can create an email template, add recipients' information, customize the template for each recipient, and send the emails without manually typing each one. This feature is useful for sending newsletters, invitations, surveys, and other bulk emails. A Micro SaaS product like this is useful for small businesses, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and anyone who needs to send out bulk emails to their contacts. Products like GMass.co and Mailmeteor.com are profitable in this space with thousands of users. Mailmeteor, founded by Corentin and Jean in 2018 as a side project, has now grown to a team of 10. GMass reached $1.4M in revenue in 2022

Side-Project Led Growth for SaaS founders

You must have heard of several growth hacking strategies like sales-led growth, product-led growth, marketing-led growth, etc. Now, the concept of Side-Project led growth is trending among the new SaaS founders. The concept is simple - Create a small side project and launch it everywhere with a few SEO efforts with the goal that this side project will bring in more sales for the main SaaS product. Many founders don’t have enough time to execute these plans. Create a small studio where you help founders with these side-projects. You can either choose to build these with code or no code based on your expertise. You will help them from end to end - Creating the side-project, fine-tuning it, helping with the launch, etc. For inspiration, see sideproductledgrowth.com which is successfully executing Side projects for a few SaaS founders. It’s a good model where you can charge a few thousand of dollars for every Side project. You can also get on calls with founders to brainstorm what ideas can be built as side projects.

Also, see ideas for building profitable digital products and B2B SaaS ideas.

Software Ideas which are not yet implemented

This is very tricky and might never work. Waiting for years and looking for an idea that no one ever implemented is a rookie mistake, and you should avoid that.

When starting the first time, or your goal is making $1K revenue/MRR, pick a proven model and try to see what you can do better and think through. Don’t waste years waiting for a new idea that no one ever implemented.

Also, do proper research on Google and forums about the niche you are thinking about. See how others are building products in a given niche and how you can improve them.

6 new Tech Startup Ideas for 2023 - 2024

1. AI-Powered Micro Learning Platforms

Microlearning platforms are online learning tools that provide short, focused bursts of learning content. They are designed to help learners quickly acquire knowledge and skills in a specific area. Microlearning platforms typically offer content in the form of short videos, interactive quizzes, and other multimedia formats. They are often used to supplement traditional learning methods, such as classroom instruction, and can reinforce concepts or introduce new topics. You can leverage AI for this and make the Microlearning platforms for robust and easier for course creators and users. AI can be used to generate micro-learning content in a variety of ways. AI-powered natural language processing (NLP) can be used to generate text-based content, such as summaries, outlines, and questions. AI-powered computer vision can be used to generate multimedia content, such as videos, images, and animations. AI-powered machine learning can be used to generate personalized content tailored to the individual learner’s needs. AI can also be used to analyze learner data and provide insights into how to improve the learning experience. For example, see Mindsmith.ai in this niche that is used by 1000 organizations across the globe.

2. Generate Content from Podcast:

Creating content from the podcast is a huge task to manually listen and create a text transcript in place. Create a Micro SaaS solution to solve this issue. The SaaS product should be able to take the Podcast and generate content, transcripts, readily publishable blog posts, and clips from the podcast content. A SaaS product that can leverage the Podcast as an audio source and generate content from it, by converting it into readable text, will help in creating content for any website. The product should also be able to generate blog posts, and clips from the generated transcripts. This is the fastest way for podcast creators and website owners to create content for their websites. Poddin.io solving a similar problem got 7 paying customers in less than 1 month. Poddin made is really special niche tool with features like Speakers Detective, Filler Words Remove, Profanity Filtering, Transcript Player, etc.

There are players adding AI flavor to this conversion to make the output content better and built ‘AI-based tool for converting Podcasts to blogs and social media posts’.

Examples of some players in this space: Dubb.media, VoicePen.ai, Podium

VoicePen reached $1,600 in revenue with 65 customers within 30 days of launching.

3. Micro SaaS around AI Video Generator with Avatars

Videos are a great source to drive traffic to any business but it consumes a lot of time in preparing videos. Videos can be a highly effective tool for driving traffic to businesses, especially in today's digital landscape. Create a Micro SaaS solution that can create Videos from prompts/text using AI with readily available avatars. Users would input a script or some bullet points, and the tool would use AI to generate a video that matches the content. The tool could also come with a variety of readily available avatars or characters to choose from, making it easy to create engaging and visually appealing videos. Not only would this tool save businesses time and resources, but it would also make it possible for anyone to create high-quality videos without needing extensive video editing skills. Plus, with the rise of social media and video-based platforms like TikTok and YouTube, there's a growing demand for businesses to create videos to reach their target audience. If the Micro SaaS solution can also create videos from prompts using AI with readily available avatars, it would be an incredibly valuable tool for businesses of all sizes. It could help them create engaging video content quickly and easily, without needing to invest in expensive video production equipment or hire a professional video team. Founded in 2017, Synthesia.io is a great product in this niche with an estimated revenue is $15.7M.

4. Gamification for Sales

Gamification for Sales is a technique that involves using gaming mechanics, such as points, badges, and challenges, to engage and motivate sales teams to improve their performance. Gamification for the Sales app could include features such as goal-setting, challenges, leaderboards, real-time feedback, and analytics. By offering these features, you can help businesses motivate their sales team to achieve specific goals, provide real-time feedback on their progress, and track their performance. A Micro SaaS product in this niche can help businesses improve their sales team's performance, productivity, and engagement. You could integrate your app with popular sales enablement and CRM tools, provide customized recommendations based on advanced algorithms, or offer personalized incentives and rewards. LevelEleven.com and SalesScreen.com are doing well in this space. The estimated annual revenue of LevelEleven is $112K.

5. Desk and Meeting Rooms Booking for Hybrid Teams

With many companies going into Hybrid and cost-cutting mode, there is a greater need to optimize resources both from a planning and cost standpoint. This led to a new niche around SaaS tools for booking desks, meeting rooms, and other related resources in the companies. Tools like these are required by both medium and large-scale companies. The primary benefit of SaaS tools for booking desks and meeting rooms is that it simplifies the process of managing and tracking the usage of these resources. With the help of these tools, companies can easily monitor and manage their resources in real time. It helps reduce the manual effort and time spent managing the resources. Companies can also ensure better utilization of resources, leading to increased efficiency and productivity. The tools also provide detailed analytics that can be used to identify the trends and patterns in the usage of the resources. Founded in 2020, getTactic.com received $3.5M in funding. getOfficely.com has reached $75K in monthly recurring revenue by tweaking into Slack primarily. A product like ronspotflexwork.com has received €1.1M in funding and niched down to multiple use cases like booking parking lots too along with desks and meeting rooms.

6. Simple Ecommerce Solutions

Solutions like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento do exist in the market for a long time. By being a long time in the market, bigger companies’ products tend to be complex, bloated with features and that is where simpler products can make things better to start getting traction and get paying customers. See ShopRocket.io which makes eCommerce super easy without a complex feature set. By targeting an audience looking for a simpler eCommerce setup, ShopRocket crossed $9K MRR. Note that this can be built in various ways by further niching down. For example, you can see to build eCommerce on top of data/product management done from Google Sheets, Airtable, Notion, etc too. Or you can just build a SaaS model with your own database too. But the concept remains the same, a SaaS product that can help build an eCommerce store without a complex setup and hundreds of features. See Orderly.so for another example.

See 12 Best SaaS Ideas with Examples for 2023 for more examples on profitable software ideas and ideas for building profitable digital products.

Revenue data of Tech Startups

Pika.style: Instantly turns boring screenshots into beautiful images. Hit $700 MRR in 7 Months and has now crossed $2K MRR.

SuperBlog.ai: Superblog is a blazing fast alternative to WordPress and Medium blogs. Users can focus on writing content instead of SEO audits, speed, and design. SuperBlog crossed $600 MRR in 3 months of building.

Leadgraph.com: The search engine for B2B sales. Narrow 250 million global companies down to perfect ICP using both familiar and advanced enterprise-grade filters. Reached monthly revenue of $20K.

Whiteout: An iOS app to easily markup text in photos and pdfs. Redact, highlight, erase, underline, blur, pixelate, etc. Reached $1.1K in monthly revenue.

getofficely.com: Tool for hybrid offices to book desks and boost attendance, all in Slack. Reached $75K in monthly recurring revenue.

IconifyAI.com: Lets users create professional app icons with AI in seconds. Made $1000 in less than 5 days.

usefathom.com: Fathom is a Google Analytics alternative that doesn’t compromise visitor privacy for data. Crossed $10K MRR.

Sendspark.com - Lets users connect to their customers with personalized videos at scale. In 2022, reached $490.7K in revenue

Testimonial.to: In minutes, you can collect video testimonials from your customers with no need for a developer or website hosting. Made $3K USD in 10 days after launch and has now grown to thousands of dollars in MRR.

GummySearch.com: Reddit audience research at fingertips. Quickly discover customer's pain points, what solutions they need, and what they are eager to pay for. Made $50K with LTDs (Life Time Deals).

See this video for more examples of revenue data of micro saas:

You can cut down on development time and cost with white-label SaaS solutions. See more examples of profitable tech startups in our post on Micro SaaS Ideas and Niches

See First-Time SaaS Founder? Avoid These 5 Common Mistakes to set yourself up for success and avoid potential pitfalls.

Best Tech Startup Ideas for 2024