Researching the Competition and Existing Solutions
💥 How Researching Existing Solutions Can Validate and Sharpen Your Idea
Before building your side business, ask yourself:
👉 “Are people already solving this problem—and are they happy with how it’s being solved?”
Competitor research isn’t about fear.
It’s about fuel.
✅ Seeing that others already serve your market means the demand is real.
✅ But spotting what those others miss? That’s where opportunity lives.
Many successful founders didn’t invent brand-new categories.
They studied what already existed, noticed what didn’t work, and built a better or more focused solution.
This article is all about those stories.
💡 Why It Matters:
• 🏆 Competition proves demand – if people are paying for something, the market exists
• 🚪 Weaknesses create openings – if users complain, those gaps are your opportunity
• 🎯 You can skip blind bets – smart research reduces risk before you write a single line of code
📘 What You’ll Unlock in This Article:
• 📖 Case studies of founders who used competitor flaws to launch thriving side businesses
• 🧭 Frameworks for finding your differentiator (even in crowded markets)
• 🔍 Tactics for turning customer complaints and review threads into business ideas
👀 Preview from the Full Guide:
💼 Remote OK became one of the world’s top job boards by fixing a single pain point:
“I just want to see remote jobs, not filter through location-based listings.”
🧠 Pieter Levels studied LinkedIn and Indeed, saw their blind spots—and built the aggregator people were waiting for.
📅 SavvyCal entered a space dominated by Calendly.
But founder Derrick Reimer didn’t copy it—he studied public complaints and unmet needs, then built a tool that felt more collaborative and respectful.
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