It's getting really hard to find simple problems that have software solutions in a niche that isn't already competitive. There are a lot of software companies o

It's getting really hard to find simple problems that have software solutions in a niche that isn't already competitive. There are a lot of software companies out there and more talented developers with successful side projects floating around than ever before. 10+ years ago you could maybe just google around and find a niche business problem with a simple software solution in a wide open market. This is not the case today. As a developer your experience of the world typically overlaps with every other developer, so anything you can relate to by a few degrees of separation is pretty picked over and likely very competitive. Ditto for anything in a cash-rich industry. So really anything that's easy to solve with an MVP product that wouldn't require clawing for attention, is lurking deep in the trenches of an industry or hobby you've never heard of and wouldn't be exposed to without being embedded in that world for a long time. There may be some sort of very valuable software solution for a problem with wool production in patagonia but you'd never know if you weren't a patagonian wool producer. I think the best approach these days is pick out a very programmer un-sexy field, study it intensely and chat with as many people in that field as possible until something shakes out. Or just bite the bullet and go head first into a competitive market and try to make something that outshines the competition...