Building a product

Sell the feeling.

Disneyland sells memories, not rollercoasters.

Amazon sells convenience, not products.

Richard Mille sells status, not watches.

Bugatti sells exclusivity, not cars.

People buy with emotions. Sell the feeling.

What's NOT going to change?

“I very frequently get the question: 'What's going to change in the next 10 years?' And that is a very interesting question; it's a very common one. I almost never get the question: 'What's not going to change in the next 10 years?' And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two -- because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time. ... [I]n our retail business, we know that customers want low prices, and I know that's going to be true 10 years from now. They want fast delivery; they want vast selection. It's impossible to imagine a future 10 years from now where a customer comes up and says, 'Jeff I love Amazon; I just wish the prices were a little higher,' [or] 'I love Amazon; I just wish you'd deliver a little more slowly.' Impossible. And so the effort we put into those things, spinning those things up, we know the energy we put into it today will still be paying off dividends for our customers 10 years from now. When you have something that you know is true, even over the long term, you can afford to put a lot of energy into it.” ― Jeff Bezos

Framework to challenge your product ideas with AI.

[Greg Isenberg] Step 0: Identify your niche or community. Determine your unfair advantage, professional background, or unique insights. Choose a specific audience to serve.
[Greg Isenberg] Start building an audience around your niche on platforms like X, LinkedIn, TikTok, or Instagram. Establish a content format and consistent publishing schedule.
First, gotta come up with something to build.
I get Gemini to do some deep dives on who else is doing similar stuff. Gotta know the competition, right?
I check out what those competitors are offering and what makes them tick. Helps figure out my angle.
Then I hit up Claude with my idea and the basics. I make it grill me with like 20 questions to see if the idea even holds water.
If it survives the interrogation, I tell Claude to write up a super basic one-page plan (PRD).
Boom, now I've got a simple outline.
Back to Claude, but this time we're just talking looks. I get it to break the whole thing into small, shippable chunks, focusing only on the UI. For each chunk, it tells me what each page will show, what you can do on it, and even draws little user flow diagrams. It's surprisingly fast.
I check Claude's work, make any tweaks, and then get it to turn each UI chunk into a prompt for v0.dev.
Then I take those prompts over to v0.dev and start generating the UI piece by piece, tweaking the prompts as I go until it looks right.
Once the whole UI is done in v0.dev, I download the code.
I get Claude to write a simple README file that explains what we're building.
I use Cursor, VS Code, or GitHub Copilot to start adding the database, backend logic, and all the stuff that makes it actually work.
[Greg Isenberg] Optionally, ask Claude or ChatGPT to generate prompts for UI in mobile formats (e.g., React Native) if you're targeting native mobile apps instead of web apps.
[Greg Isenberg] Download the final codebase and open it in an IDE (like Xcode for iOS or Android Studio) to preview or build native apps from the v0.dev output.

31 ways to find your next $10k/month startup idea (by Greg Isenberg)

Analyze Hacker News "Show HN" flops. Failed projects = market insights.
Scrape Fiverr gig descriptions. Common requests = product opportunities.
Monitor academic library search trends. Students' needs = untapped markets.
Analyze Shopify app store uninstall reasons. Fix what others get wrong.
Scrape error logs from open-source projects. Common bugs = SaaS ideas.
Track feature requests on ProductBoard public roadmaps. Build what big companies won't.
Analyze job postings for "nice-to-have" skills. Turn those into products.
Monitor Slack app directory for gaps. Build missing integrations.
Scrape Google Scholar for most-cited new papers. Commercialize academic breakthroughs.
Analyze Kickstarter projects that were almost funded. Revive and improve failed concepts. Make the hardware ones software. Cheaper.
Monitor GitHub repo archival reasons. Resurrect abandoned but loved tools.
Scrape StackOverflow for questions with no accepted answers. Solve unsolved dev problems.
Analyze Tweets complaining about specific software. Fix common pain points.
Monitor niche forum "marketplace" sections. Productize common service requests.
Analyze App Store "Wish List" data. Build apps people want but don't exist.
Scrape Indie Hackers for abandoned project ideas. Execute on others' missed opportunities.
Monitor subreddit sidebars for recommended tools. Fill gaps in niche ecosystems.
Analyze Chrome extension permissions. Build privacy-focused alternatives.
Scrape product comparison sites for feature gaps. Build the missing pieces.
Monitor industry conference talk submissions. Solve problems speakers highlight.
Analyze GitHub issue response times. Build automated solutions for slow-to-fix problems.
Analyze Capterra reviews for feature comparison mentions. Build all-in-one solutions.
Analyze Glassdoor reviews for common workplace complaints. Build internal tools to solve them.
Analyze Figma community file usage. Create plugins for common design workflows.
Analyze Amazon's "Customers Also Bought" for weird combinations. Create niche bundle products.
Analyze Spotify playlist descriptions for workflow mentions. Build audio-enhancement tools for specific tasks. People pay for this all the time.
Analyze Git commit messages for recurring themes. Build developer workflow enhancers.
Analyze Canva template search queries. Create niche design tools for underserved markets.
Analyze Zapier popular integrations. Develop standalone apps replacing complex zaps.
Build a niche internet audience. Ask them what they really want. Open-ended poll to really get to know them.
Go for a walk, idea hits you right in the face and run back to your house to fire up v0/replit/bolt/cursor faster than you could say $10k MRR.