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Home Startups

7 Tempting Startup Ideas I’d NEVER Build (And Why You Should Avoid Them Too)

in Startups
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7 Tempting Startup Ideas I’d NEVER Build (And Why You Should Avoid Them Too)
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Starting a business is one of the most exciting and rewarding journeys you can take. But not all ideas are created equal. Some are dangerously seductive and tempting. They look promising, they trend on forums, and they get pitched at every hackathon. The truth? Many of these ideas are traps that will cost you years of your life, drain your finances, and leave you burnt out.

In this article, we will reveal why these ideas are dangerous and, more importantly, what you should be focusing on instead.

Let’s dive in

Startup ideas

🔥 1. Never Build an Ad-Supported Startup (Unless You’re VC-Funded)

The dream: Create a free app or website, attract millions of users, and make tons of money from ads. Sounds easy, right?

In reality, ad-supported startups are almost impossible to bootstrap profitably. Here’s why:

  • You need MASSIVE scale: To generate real income, you need millions of page views or active users, and even then, the revenue per user is minuscule.
  • Users hate ads: Ad blockers are everywhere, and people are increasingly intolerant of pop-ups, banners, and video ads.
  • You’re beholden to advertisers: Your success depends on pleasing clients who can pull budgets overnight.
  • Low margins: After platform fees, content creators, and overhead, there’s little left.

Exceptions: Only consider this if you’re raising significant venture capital and plan to delay profitability for years. Even then, it’s a risky bet.

Better alternative: Focus on subscription-based or value-based pricing models where customers pay directly for the value received.

🚫 2. Avoid Percentage-on-Revenue Models Unless You Have Tons of Capital

This model involves taking a small cut of transactions or savings generated by your product. Think Stripe, Shopify, or a fintech tool that takes a slice of each financial transaction.

Here’s the problem: tiny percentages don’t add up unless you have astronomical volume.

Even companies like Shopify started with a percentage-of-GMV model, and quickly realized it wasn’t enough. They pivoted to monthly plans, which gave them predictable, recurring revenue.

If you’re bootstrapping, you’ll struggle to reach the scale needed to make this work. And without deep pockets, you won’t survive long enough to get there.

Better alternative: Charge a clear, upfront price based on the value you deliver. Monthly subscriptions or usage tiers work far better for bootstrapped SaaS companies.

⚠️ 3. Creating a New Category Is a Multi-Year, Multi-Million Dollar Gamble

Trying to invent a new product category sounds visionary. But in practice, it means spending 5–10 years and $5M+ educating the market before anyone even understands what you do, let alone pays for it.

Bootstrapped founders rarely have the resources to play that long game. Most run out of cash or motivation before their market catches up.

Examples: Early cloud storage tools, early project management software, and AI assistants in the 2010s.

Better alternative: Solve a known pain point within an existing market. That way, you can focus on execution instead of education.

💣 4. Don’t Start a Consumer-Facing (B2C) Product Without Significant Funding

B2C looks glamorous. Think apps like Netflix, Calm, or Peloton. But here’s the dirty secret: bootstrapping a B2C product is incredibly hard.

Why?

  • High CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): It’s expensive to acquire individual consumers.
  • High churn: Consumers are fickle. One price increase or UX hiccup and they’re gone.
  • Thin margins: You often can’t raise prices without backlash.
  • Support nightmares: Consumers expect instant help and tolerate very little friction.

Unless you have strong marketing skills, a big budget, and a solid understanding of consumer behavior, avoid this path.

Better alternative: Target niche B2B markets where customers have higher budgets, lower churn, and clearer ROI expectations.

🔄 5. Stay Away from Two-Sided Marketplaces Unless You Already Control One Side

Two-sided marketplaces (like Uber, Airbnb, Fiverr) connect buyers and sellers. Sounds great, until you realize the chicken-and-egg problem.

To attract drivers, you need passengers. To attract passengers, you need drivers. Solving that loop requires massive upfront investment and strategic partnerships.

Bootstrapped founders often spend years trying to get traction on both sides and fail.

Better alternative: Start with a single-sided solution. Once you have demand, build the supply side around it.

🏗️ 6. Don’t Try to Bootstrap a Venture-Backed Business

Some businesses inherently require massive capital to scale, like social networks, hardware startups, AI platforms, etc.

Trying to bootstrap a venture-scale business leads to:

  • Constant under-resourcing
  • Slow progress compared to funded competitors
  • Burnout from trying to do too much with too little

Bootstrapping is powerful, but it works best when matched to the right kind of business.

Better alternative: Build something lean and scalable like a niche SaaS tool, where growth doesn’t depend on huge marketing spends or infrastructure costs.

🤖 7. Don’t Build Your Own Foundational AI Model

AI is hot right now. But here’s the brutal truth: building your own foundational LLM or general-purpose AI model is a losing battle unless you’re Google, OpenAI, or Anthropic.

Why?

  • Insane compute costs: Training and running large models costs millions.
  • Talent wars: Hiring top AI engineers is nearly impossible for early-stage startups.
  • No revenue guarantee: Even the biggest players are burning money trying to monetize AI.
  • Competition is crushing: You can’t compete with the scale and funding of Big Tech.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, use existing models like GPT, Claude, or Mistral via APIs, and build applications on top of them.

Better alternative: Build vertical-specific AI tools that solve narrow, high-value problems using existing foundation models.

🎯 What Should You Build Instead?

Now that we’ve covered what not to build, let’s talk about what you should be focusing on.

Here are the key characteristics of a great bootstrappable SaaS idea:

✔️ Solves a Real Problem

Your product must address a clear, persistent problem that someone is already trying to solve, ideally with makeshift solutions or spreadsheets.

✔️ Targets a Specific Niche

Avoid broad markets. Pick a narrow segment where you can become the go-to solution.

✔️ Has Clear Customer Personas

You should know exactly who your ideal customer is, their name, job title, daily tasks, and pain points.

✔️ Can Be Validated Quickly

Build a landing page, run ads, and see if people actually want to buy before you write a line of code.

✔️ Offers Recurring Revenue

Subscription models provide predictability and allow you to invest in growth confidently.

🧪 How to Validate Your Idea Before You Build

One of the biggest mistakes founders make is building in secret for months or even years, only to discover no one wants their product.

To avoid that trap, follow this simple validation process:

  1. Define your target audience: Who are they? What do they do?
  2. Create a landing page: Explain the problem and your solution.
  3. Drive traffic: Use Reddit, Twitter, Facebook groups, LinkedIn, or paid ads.
  4. Collect emails: Offer a free guide or early access.
  5. Talk to potential customers: Ask why they signed up and what they’d pay for.
  6. Pre-sell: If you can get pre-orders, you’ve validated your idea.

This approach saves you time, money, and heartbreak.

📌 Final Thoughts: Skip the Heartbreak, Build Something That Works

Not all startup ideas are worth pursuing. Some are just too risky, too expensive, or too hard to monetize, especially for bootstrapped founders.

By avoiding these seven tempting but dangerous paths, you’ll save yourself years of frustration and wasted effort.

Focus on solving real problems in small, specific markets. Build something people want and are willing to pay for. Then, grow it sustainably.

That’s how you build a startup that lasts.

Tags: ad-supported startupsAI model costsB2C startup strugglesbad startup ideasbootstrapping challengescategory creation businesshow to find good startup ideaspercentage revenue modelSaaS idea validationstartup failure trapstwo-sided marketplace problemsventure-backed startups

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