ProblemHunt

About ProblemHunt

ProblemHunt is a platform that collects real, unpaid problems reported by people and publishes them for makers and founders to explore. The service focuses on identifying issues that users say they would be willing to pay to have solved, using a moderated submission process.

Review

ProblemHunt aims to reduce a common cause of startup failure by surfacing verified pain points before development begins. The product is early-stage and relies on manual research and curation to surface problems with higher likelihood of market demand.

Key Features

• Moderated problem submissions: contributors answer a short application to describe their issue and provide contact details.
• Manual curation and verification to filter out low-potential or one-off requests.
• Direct contact between problem owners and solution seekers, enabling quick follow-up and validation.
• Screening questions aimed at assessing willingness to pay and seriousness of the problem.

Pricing and Value

The platform is currently free to use for both problem sharers and solvers, and has offered promotional periods (for example, an initial free period for early users). The team has experimented with a paid model where solvers paid to connect with problem owners, but that approach is not the current default. Value is delivered by lowering the cost and risk of idea discovery: instead of guessing market demand, makers can review curated, real-world problems and run lightweight validation.

Pros

• Clear focus on genuine user problems rather than abstract ideas.
• Moderation and screening increase the signal-to-noise ratio compared with open forums.
• Simple workflow: submit a problem, get it published, and allow direct outreach.
• Free access at launch lowers the barrier for early exploration and testing.

Cons

• High manual effort in sourcing problems: only a small fraction of outreach yields publishable submissions.
• Manual curation can limit scale unless the process is streamlined or partially automated.
• Market sizing for some problems can remain uncertain when public data is scarce.

ProblemHunt is best suited for early-stage founders, product teams, and indie makers who want to find and validate customer pain points before building. It works well as a discovery tool to identify high-potential problems and run quick experiments, especially for teams that can follow up with interviews or simple MVPs.

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