You don't need a new idea. You need a new target.
The Struggle for Originality
Are you struggling to find a “new” and “original” idea for your next SaaS or side project? I was there too. But every good idea seemed taken. We often fall into the trap of thinking that innovation requires a completely novel invention. We brainstorm for hours, looking for that one spark that no one else has ever thought of. But the reality is, most “new” ideas are just remixes of existing ones.
So I stopped trying to invent something new. I looked at what was already working for one group, and checked if another group was missing it. This shift in perspective changed everything. Instead of asking “What new thing can I build?”, I started asking “Who is currently excluded from a popular service?”.
The “New Target” Strategy
The core of this strategy is simple: Identify a proven business model that works for a specific demographic, and find a similar demographic that is currently underserved or completely ignored. You don’t need to change the product; you just need to change the audience.
Case Study: Korea Deals
I live in Korea. I use online shopping every day. In Korea, deal aggregator sites are huge. These sites have millions of daily users who check them religiously. They share time-limited discounts, and people go crazy for them. The business model is proven. The demand is proven. The tech is simple: crawl, aggregate, and display.
But there was one major problem. These sites are 100% in Korean. They use heavy slang, complex interfaces cluttered with ads, and often use images for text, making translation tools useless. So, foreigners living in Korea were completely excluded from this massive market. They wanted to save money too, but they couldn’t navigate the barriers.
The Execution
So I built a deal aggregator specifically for foreigners living in Korea. The mechanism is exactly the same as the popular Korean sites. I crawl the deals and show the deals.
The only difference is the layer of accessibility I added. I auto-translate everything to English. I curated the UI to be cleaner and more intuitive for non-Koreans, removing the clutter that is common in domestic sites. I just took their concept to a blue ocean that was right next door.
Why It Worked
Foreigners loved it because for them, it was a new product. They had never seen these deals before. For the Korean locals, this was old news. But for the expat community, it was a revelation. For me, it was just copying a proven work but changing the language and interface.
The idea doesn’t have to be new. The audience does. By shifting the target, I unlocked a fresh market with zero competition, all while using a boring, proven technology.
Conclusion
If you are stuck looking for an idea, try this approach. Don’t burden yourself with the pressure of invention. Look for exclusion. Look for barriers. And then build the bridge.
P.S. This is the simple aggregator I built: https://deals.bkbr.cc/