r/Startup_Ideas

I have a few ideas, call me a dreamer. Some of them decent, some admittedly pretty lame. However every once in a while I feel like I come up with a gem 💎. Something that in my head is useful, could be profitable, and can solve problems and make lives easier. However I’m a finance guy, I’m a licensed advisor, I’m not a tech guy or even a logistics person. There are some ideas id like to share to help find people to help me implement and build the project. Whats the best way to do this haha. I dont want to be the Winklevoss twins of my idea.
I need an app developer :) 👩‍💻

I'm sorry if this violates any rule. I'm sad and wanted to feel better by seeing others happy. Made it quickly on Antigravity and pushed it to the web. I will be really happy to see you guys there. Comment if you want the link.

Hi everyone!

I’m currently working on an education startup/nonprofit initiative and would love some input on the branding.

The idea is to build a platform that helps students from my country navigate undergraduate admissions abroad, starting with the U.S. We already have scholars and mentors from prestigious U.S. universities who are willing to guide students for free through the entire process — from university selection and financial aid to extracurriculars, essays, and applications.

The long-term vision is to expand beyond the U.S. and eventually cover other major study-abroad destinations as well.

I’m currently stuck on the name.

I don’t want something generic or overly tied to U.S. admissions. I’m looking for a name with a deeper meaning — something that can communicate integrity, authenticity, opportunity, excellence, or trust, while still being broad enough to grow into a global education brand.

If you were naming this startup, what would you call it?

Open to anything — even unusual or abstract ideas. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Would you use that?

The idea: You’re coding live in VS Code (streaming, a freelancer demo, pair feedback, whatever). Instead of viewers just seeing a video of your screen, they open a link and get your app actually running in their own browser — fully clickable and usable, with live updates every time you save.

And if someone spots a bug, they can simply click on the broken part. In VS Code, you automatically get a ready-to-use prompt containing a screenshot, console errors, and the affected element.

I think its especially nice for vibe coding streamer that create games or stuff that the community can instantely use then together and provide feedback in structured form.

Need your opinions!

Premise: Buyer gets transparent deal, Dealers gets confirmed deposit backed buyers (no tire kickers)

Working on online platform that kills the dealership games and tricks, essentially it's a 3 steps process:

Step 1: Car buyer puts their car specs, target price and terms (finance /lease) and how much they want for their trade in (if they have one) and puts a refundable deposit in the online platform. Zero cost to buyer

Step 2: Registered Dealers in the area (50km radius) submit final offers on dealership letterheads or dealer sheets and pics of the car to the buyer in a transparent upfront way. Gets charged a 1% fee IF the buyer accepts the offer.

Step 3: If the buyer likes the offer, they accept , deposit is transferred to dealer and buyer walks in with the transparent upfront deal sheet and signs and walks away.

No games, no negotiations, no 4 hour Saturday afternoon wasted, no drama, no regrets.

My question to you: Would you use this platform if it existed? Poke holes at it - what's missing? What features would you like? What's wrong with it ?

I created this ticketing system for small to mid level companies on my spare time and when I showcased it to my employer they absolutely loved it. They are now paying me on top of my wage for the service.

I would appreciate it if anyone wanted to check it out!
Its called go report it!

Just a rant I guess

As a new app developer, I am constantly looking for ways for distribution. Of course, reddit is one way. As soon as someone asks about an app preference in some subreddit, I reach there out of the blue and poop my app name there.

At the end of the day, every reddit post turns to look like an app listing. It's just noise building up in the reddit database!

I'm not a sales person or a marketing person. But I am made to believe this works. People say you shouldn't shy away from putting your word out. But this just looks bad sometimes.

Hey everyone,

I’m helping a few founders find out whether ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI tools recommend their startup when potential customers ask for solutions in their category.

Drop your startup link + one sentence about your target customer.

Within 24 hours, I’ll send you:

• The questions your potential customers are asking AI
• Whether your startup appears in the answers
• Which competitors AI recommends instead
• The specific changes that could help you get mentioned more often

I’ll analyze how companies appear in AI-generated recommendations.

This is a free experiment to see whether improving AI discoverability can create more qualified inbound interest for early-stage startups.

All I need from you:

• Your website
• One sentence describing who it’s for

I’m capping this at 20 founders because I’ll be reviewing each company manually.

title

My college used to run on manual bill payments in hostels. I was a secretary in there, and I observed the mess it created every now and then.

So, for the last 01 year, I created a platform to solve this core issue. My platform makes billing easier, payments, fines, concessions everything is now automated.

Bad part: I think my college ditched me.

You can ask me that why I sort of spent 01 long year on this. Because my college and the warden approved the basic idea and the MVP demo I gave them. Since I had to integrate a payment gateway in it, it took some time to sort of minimize the AMC and all those transaction fee.

But now, the warden says the college doesnt need it.

I don't know what to do now.

I dont want my efforts to go waste. I know this might be a problem in other institutions too. But I am clueless on how to approach them.

Any advise please?

Hey everyone.

I'm 19, based in Argentina, and currently studying to become a real estate broker. Over the past year I've been teaching myself ecommerce, Meta Ads, product research and validation.

I previously ran a small fitness-product store for about 3 months. It didn't work out, but it taught me a lot about advertising, logistics, margins and, most importantly, not putting money into inventory before validating demand.

So I'm trying a different approach this time.

The idea: Levha

Levha is a sleep-wellness brand focused on sunrise alarm lamps — lamps that gradually simulate sunrise and sunset instead of waking you up with a traditional alarm.

I found 38+ active listings for this type of product on Mercado Libre, Argentina's largest marketplace, including established brands such as Philips. That doesn't prove Levha will succeed, but it does show that people are already buying this type of product in the market I'm targeting.

I've also researched the international supply side and found an Alibaba supplier offering the product at $23.09/unit with an MOQ of only 2 units.

What I've already built without spending money:

• Brand name, logo and visual identity
• Instagram account and initial content
• Supplier research and quotes
• Product/margin calculations
• A complete launch plan
• A presale model designed to minimize inventory risk

The plan

Instead of buying a large amount of inventory upfront, I want to run a small presale campaign.

1. Launch a Shopify store
2. Run a small 3-day Meta Ads test
3. Offer the first units at a founder/pre-launch price
4. Clearly disclose an estimated 30–45 day delivery window
5. Use the presale revenue to fund the first inventory order
6. If I can't generate at least 4–5 sales, I stop and reassess instead of throwing more money at it

What I need: $450

Here's where the money would go:

• Shopify + domain: ~$16
• Initial Meta Ads test: ~$70
• Initial inventory/shipping reserve: ~$350
• Small buffer for payment fees/import-related costs

The goal isn't to build a huge company immediately.

The goal is to answer one question:

Can I acquire customers profitably for this product?

If the answer is yes, I'll reinvest the revenue and scale. If the answer is no, I'll stop with a relatively small loss.

What I'm looking for

I'm looking for someone willing to take a small, calculated bet on the project.

I'm open to structuring the $450 as either:

• a repayable loan with an agreed return, or
• a revenue-share arrangement on this product line until the initial investment + agreed return is paid back.

I'm not looking for charity.

I'd rather have someone look at the numbers, challenge the idea, and decide whether they think the risk/reward makes sense.

I can provide the supplier quotes, financial model, margins and launch plan to anyone seriously interested.

I'd also genuinely appreciate criticism from people who have launched physical-product ecommerce brands.

What would you change about this plan before I spend the first dollar?

I'm building Meridian, and I noticed something: it's surprisingly hard to find founders who are genuinely deep in the fundraising grind — not just "building a startup," but actively pitching, negotiating term sheets, chasing warm intros.

I mean people who:

Are raising pre-seed or seed from VCs right now.
Talk about pitch decks, cap tables, and investor strategy like it's actually interesting.
Would rather get real feedback than another "great idea!" comment.
Are willing to help each other get to a signed term sheet.

My goal isn't to sell anything or build a paid community. Just a small, curated Discord of founders who are actively fundraising and want to share pitch feedback, VC intros, and keep each other accountable.

If that sounds like you, comment what you're raising for or DM me. If enough people are interested, I'll get you the invite.

I've been trying to help founders distribute their startups.

So far I've built:

• posts to publish
• relevant leads/conversations
• an agent that tells you what to do next

I've reached almost 300 users and 6 founders paid.

But they didn't stick around.

So instead of guessing and building more features, I want to ask you:

If you were struggling to distribute your startup, what would you actually pay someone to do for you?

What would genuinely save you time every week?