Let me tell you a quick story about a developer named Sam.
Sam is incredibly smart. For a whole year, he stayed up late building a super complex AI tool for digital creators. He launched it online. He posted about it constantly.
The result? Crickets. He got exactly zero paid users.
One weekend, Sam went to a neighborhood barbecue. He started talking to a guy named Bob. Bob owns a medium sized company that sells cardboard boxes to local restaurants. It is not a sexy business at all.
Bob was complaining about how his sales team tracks their custom orders. They were using an ancient spreadsheet that crashed all the time. They were losing track of emails, missing shipments, and losing money.
Sam asked Bob why he did not just buy a modern software tool. Bob sighed. He said the big software tools were way too expensive and had a hundred features his team did not even need. They just wanted something simple that actually worked.
So, Sam made a choice. He stopped working on his shiny AI app. Instead, he spent two weeks building a very basic order tracker just for Bob.
Bob loved it. He loved it so much that he happily paid Sam $400 a month to keep using it.
Then Bob showed it to his friend who runs a commercial cleaning supply business. That friend wanted it too.
Within a few months, Sam had a highly profitable software business. He was not on the front page of tech magazines, but he was making a fantastic living.
This is the magic of boring companies.
When we hang out on the internet, we get tricked into thinking we have to build the next big thing. We think we have to invent a new social network or a wild new app that changes the world.
But while everyone is fighting over those crowded spaces, a quiet group of developers is getting rich in the background. They are building simple software for freight companies, packaging plants, and wholesale suppliers.
Walk into the back office of any boring company. You will not find sleek software. You will find messy filing cabinets and people pulling their hair out over manual data entry.
These businesses lose thousands of dollars every week because they are so disorganized. And the best part is that they actually have money to spend. To a boring company, paying $500 a month for software that saves them 10 hours a week is a complete no brainer.
Now, you might be thinking that someone has already built these tools. You might think the market is totally full.
Do not let that stop you.
Just look around your life right now. Think about phones, cars, or kitchen appliances. Everyone knows Apple, but there are dozens of other phone brands out there making millions of dollars. You might have never even heard of some of them, but they still have loyal customers who prefer their specific pricing, features, or simplicity. The same thing happens with car brands and washing machines. There is almost never just one company that gets every single customer.
Software is the exact same way. It is almost never a game where one winner takes everything. Just because a giant company like Salesforce exists does not mean Bob wants to use it. Big software is usually too expensive, too complicated, and trying to please everyone at once.
The world is huge. There is always a specific target market, a local region, or a tiny niche that wants your exact version of a tool. You do not need a million users to build a great business. You just need fifty boring companies paying you a few hundred bucks a month.
So, how do you do this?
Stop trying to think of ideas in your bedroom. Go talk to people who run traditional businesses. Do research on these 'unsexy' and 'unattractive' businesses, even construction. Talk to a logistics manager or a factory owner. Ask them what part of their day makes them want to scream.
Look for the messy spreadsheets. Look for the boring, repetitive tasks.
You do not need to change the whole world. You just need to solve a real problem for a real business.In as much as some build for the love of the game, making some $ while doing what you love would be much, much better. Embrace the boring stuff, because that is exactly where the real opportunity is hiding ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ.
Photo by xyzcharlize on Unsplash
