Why I stopped brainstorming startup ideas and started collecting problems

Boris Gostroverhov — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 21:28:09 +0000

When I first tried to build startups, I did what many founders do:
I brainstormed ideas.

I wrote lists of “cool products” and “big markets”.
Most of those ideas went nowhere.

Over time, I noticed a pattern:
I was starting with solutions, not problems.

The mistake I kept making

I rarely talked to real users before building.
When I did, I often asked questions like:

“Would you use this?”

People usually said “yes”, but nothing happened later.
I realized that I was asking the wrong questions.

I started asking people a simpler question:

“What is a problem you deal with often and would like to solve?”

People answered very differently.

They talked about small, annoying, but real problems they face at work or in everyday life.

After collecting more than 150 real problems, a few things became clear:

But they are real and recurring.

At first, I collected these problems just for myself.

Later, other founders asked if they could see them too.

Eventually, I turned this experiment into a small project called ProblemHunt.

It’s a simple place where people share real problems, and founders can browse them before building products.

This is still early, and I’m not sure yet if this format is ideal.

I’m curious how other founders approach this:

I’d really like to learn from your experience.

If you’re interested, check out ProblemHunt here:
https://problemhunt.pro