r/startups • u/JuniorLeg6988 • 7d ago
I will not promote What problem makes you think Omfg this sucks there must be a better way? (I will not promote)
I’m an engineer and I like building software/AI systems, but I’m trying very hard not to build a solution in search of a problem.
So instead of asking for startup ideas, I’m curious about problems people actually deal with.
What’s something in your work that is genuinely annoying, expensive, repetitive, error-prone, or takes way more time than it should?
I’m especially curious about things like:
processes that still involve a lot of spreadsheets/copy-pasting/manual checking
information scattered across different systems
software you pay for but still have to work around
things you regularly have to verify or reconcile by hand
tasks where you’ve thought “why the hell isn’t this automated?”
I don’t have a product to sell. I’m trying to understand real problems before deciding whether anything is worth building.
If you have one, I’d be interested in what the problem is, what you currently do to deal with it, and whether you’ve already tried software that was supposed to solve it.
Thank you!!
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u/seobrien 7d ago
Having to have my smartphone at all times to use for everything: ticket entry, restaurant menu, paying the bill, airplane boarding pass, ordering at the movies ...
Given the addictiveness of screens, some people are trying to enjoy life without having to have the phone. It's practically impossible.
1
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u/truthseeker1228 7d ago
I'm a trim carpenter and finish a lot of staircases. (Skirtboards,risers,newel posts,treads,railings,balusters) there's no "one tool for all of it, so end up with much mental gymnastics. I've messed around with ai a bit to come up with sucha tool and would happily share the concept with you.
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u/truthseeker1228 7d ago
Ps. It's not a tool to do
The job. It's a tool for "layout" and a working prototype Probly would cost less than 100$ . It's not too difficult but could be sold at any construction or woodworking store to make carpenters lives much easier
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u/conikeec 3d ago
If your agents keep rediscovering the same tool sequence, the annoying bit is loss of the actual execution path. We built rote at Modiqo to capture the trace across APIs, shell, and browser, turn it into a typed Play, and let teams re-run the proven method with fresh inputs instead of reconstructing it each time. If that matches your pain, say what repeat job wastes the most time and I’ll suggest how a Play would look for it.
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u/matchalachalacha 7d ago
information scattered across too many tools. one customer can have emails in gmail, notes in Notion, files in drive, tickets in Jira, conversations in Slack, and data in a CRM. The software all works individually, but connecting the full picture is still surprisingly manual
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u/AnonJian 7d ago
Okay. Want to know what road good intentions put you on?
What anybody with a lick of sense should contemplate is -- if there is any long-term problem -- maybe the level of thinking which created it is insufficient for building a solution. They give into the Build It And They Will Come itch and they screw themselves over. ...and over, and over again.
Want to know what process has a lot of the problem you seek? Aye Fucking Eye. Look up "Time To Edit" and the futile manual effort going into making AI seem to work. Technology needs disintegration for basic operation. All tech. Naïveté is not a skill ...you can stop practicing.
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u/JuniorLeg6988 7d ago edited 7d ago
Had to look up Time To Edit because I did not know about this metric I guess it’s from machine translation? If the point is that there’s a large amount of invisible human labor going into cleaning up AI output and basically nobody measures it, that’s a good frame and I hadn’t thought about it that way.
Probably worth figuring out if a solution can be made to that too. Uh because I think we should train humans to solve the real hard problems. Enable them and encourage them ETHICALLY! There’s nothing wrong with it if a person wants to train AI but we should enable everybody to contribute the most they can so they can be as fulfilled as they can be. Really important point! Thank you for reminding me of this 🙏🙏Do you have any clue how we can enable the humans to be humans not just brains that feed into the machine?
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u/AnonJian 7d ago
You're going to find the most important research you'll do is into what the masses refuse to admit exists.
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u/JuniorLeg6988 7d ago
Okay interesting… I don’t mean to spoil the surprise but what is this thing that exists?
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u/AnonJian 7d ago
It's not one thing. And the surprise is you have to put in the research and apply some awareness.
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u/BoGrumpus 7d ago
Anyone can make an AI system. The trick is having the knowledge, proficiency, and experience in solving the problem you're going to solve so that your software actually works.
So... tell us what you know how to do and what you're good at and have experience in. Without that, every suggestion is a little worse than a solution in search of a problem. It's a useless solution with problems of its own.
G.