Frameworks on new markets, startup ideas and emerging technologies

5 min readApr 17, 2024

As someone who works at the intersection of Products, Markets, and Customer Problems for my clients, connecting the dots has always piqued my interest.

Naturally, this drove me to start Venturescale in 2021 to bridge the gap between new technology markets, product ideas, and customer needs.

This symbiosis is what I call the “pyramid of building the future of Internet products.”

Here’s how it works:

Emerging markets give rise to new customer needs.
New customer needs create new problems that demand new software products.
New categories of software products inspire builders to differentiate and create products that deliver great value.

My thought processes behind new market discovery and product ideation…

1. Capture Signals that Matter

Traditional market trend reports are boring. I mean, it took forever to get to the point.

Venturescale is created for people who hate corporate-style data, charts, and metrics. It’s for the new breed of tech builders who want to move fast.

Instead of information, Venturescale gives you trend anecdotes. Instead of boring data, Venturescale gives you insights and perspectives. Take the idea and run with it.

Here’s how I condensed the essence of AI startup opportunities in one of the Venturescale Pro Reports:

2. Making Sense of Customer Needs

Validating the problem is the first step to determining whether a new product idea can be monetized effectively.

This process can be broken down into two key parts…

(a) Macro discovery

The process involves examining the market problem as a whole. Within Venturescale, this is facilitated through the “Market Problem & Customer Needs” section.

Here, you can see the common pain points that exist within a niche market, and how your competitors are addressing them with unique product or feature offerings:

(b) Micro discovery

This step involves narrowing down your macro observations and putting them to the test. You can do this by conducting user interviews, speaking with potential clients, and understanding their unique pain points.

This is where the RapidMVPs Framework comes into play. I’ve outlined a structured approach to validating problems + solutions; and gathering feedback from your target audience. Here’s an overview of the framework:

By combining macro and micro discovery techniques, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of customer needs, and pave the way to validating your business models.

3. Find Profitable Niche Markets

When it comes to discovering profitable niche markets, one of my favorite techniques is to explore verticalization and category creation.

Verticalization requires you to break down a broader industry, such as targeting a particular demographic or a specific use case, and identifying opportunities to create specialized products or services tailored to the unique needs of a particular market segment.

On the other hand, category creation involves innovating new product categories or subsectors within an existing market landscape. In other words, you are carving out a distinct market space for your offering.

4. Discover Similar Competitors in Your Niche

You don’t want to enter a market without any competition. If there are no competitors, it may mean there’s not enough demand for a new solution.

However, you also don’t want to enter a saturated market where everyone is offering the same thing.

One big question that often arises when exploring new market opportunities is: who else is building something similar?

Here, you can use the Venturescale competitor database (free examples). Each niche market or subsector has its key players. You can also look through their website to see what they offer, how they price it, and how they differentiate.

5. Contemplating the White Space

Understanding the white space involves identifying opportunities and gaps in the market that have not been effectively addressed.

You can conduct white space analysis by cross-pollinating technology enablers with different market sectors.

Here’s an example using Blockchain/DeFi (decentralized finance). Blockchain lays the groundwork for financialization layers such as cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and DAOs (decentralized autonomous organization), providing anyone the ability to earn on the Internet through decentralized finance.

When DeFi intersects with AI (artificial intelligence), it creates the AI-Based Web3 Creator Economy, represented by companies like NightCafe, which allow Web3 creators to monetize AI-generated NFTs.

When DeFi intersects with social network, it transforms social media — primarily serving to connect people and form online communities — into SocialFi, where anyone can create, socialize, earn, and own shares through platforms like Human IPOs. This platform tokenizes your time into “one hour per share,” which investors (buyers of tokens) can buy and redeem to have a 1:1 meeting with that person.

6. Preview 37+ Free Reports 🌟

Discover the Free Version of Venturescale Reports in the Free Library here.
If you’re interested in going deeper, you can also upgrade to the Full Access of Venturescale Pro Library Volume #01.