Spot business ideas hiding in trending Hacker News posts

Scans popular Hacker News posts, uses AI to spot real business pain points, and logs them to a spreadsheet.

How the work actually flows

A straight line. Runs once per each qualifying post.

Pattern: Sequence (1) ยท Multiple Instances with a priori Run-Time Knowledge (14)

flowchart TD trig(["scheduled check of trending posts"]):::trigtime s0["Check Hacker News front page"]:::svc s1["Filter for high engagement posts"]:::task s2[["Fetch each qualifying article"]]:::mi s3["AI summarizes pain points"]:::task s4[("Log results to spreadsheet")]:::store trig --> s0 s0 --> s1 s1 -->|"one per each qualifying post"| s2 s2 --> s3 s3 --> s4 out[/"spreadsheet log of business pain points"/]:::out pay{{"spot startup ideas without manual reading"}}:::pay s4 --> out out --> pay classDef task fill:#e7f6fe,stroke:#34b8f0,color:#2c2a29 classDef svc fill:#f6f8fa,stroke:#7c8795,color:#2c2a29 classDef mi fill:#e7f6fe,stroke:#0079a8,color:#2c2a29,stroke-width:2px classDef human fill:#fff,stroke:#0079a8,color:#0079a8 classDef store fill:#f6f8fa,stroke:#0079a8,color:#2c2a29 classDef trig fill:#00a4eb,stroke:#0079a8,color:#fff,font-weight:bold classDef trigtime fill:#00a4eb,stroke:#0079a8,color:#fff,font-weight:bold classDef trigdata fill:#8ad4f5,stroke:#0079a8,color:#06314c,font-weight:bold classDef gate fill:#fff,stroke:#e8a23d,color:#6b4708,font-weight:bold classDef out fill:#1f9d6b,stroke:#167a53,color:#fff,font-weight:bold classDef pay fill:#06314c,stroke:#021f33,color:#fff
Starts itA stepAn outside serviceRuns once per itemA record or sheetResultPayoff
Build size
Advanced

A larger build with multiple systems, AI reasoning, and custom rules.

Business functions
AI Agents & Autonomous SystemsSpreadsheet & Database OpsResearch & Market Intelligence
Connects
Google SheetsHacker NewsOpenRouter

The problem it solves

Finding fresh business or product ideas usually means scrolling through forums and comment threads hoping something jumps out at you. It's slow, unfocused work, and it's easy to miss a good signal buried in a long discussion.

Who it fits

Founders, product managers, or indie hackers looking for validated problems worth building a solution for.

How it works

  1. The system checks the current front page of Hacker News
  2. It filters for posts with strong engagement, meaning lots of comments and points, and that are recent
  3. It fetches the full article behind each qualifying post
  4. An AI reads the content and summarizes any business pain points it finds
  5. The results are added to a spreadsheet for you to review
What you get

Business pain points spotted before your competitors

Scan trending Hacker News posts for real business pain points worth building a solution for, logged for you.

What you get

A running spreadsheet of business pain points spotted in trending discussions, ready for you to evaluate.

What you need

A Google Workspace account and an OpenRouter API key.

We can build this. But should you?

The hard question is not how to build it. It is whether this is the right thing to build first.

That is what a Fractional Chief AI Officer figures out with you, before anyone writes a line of code.

Let's Talk Strategy

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