Greg Isenberg

I've been digging into startup ideas that are obvious in hindsight but somehow still unbuilt And I've got a cash-flowing startup idea for you today... 84% of solo female travelers report feeling unsafe, yet every major travel platform still prioritizes thread counts and breakfast reviews over the basic question: "Can I walk back to my hotel at night?" Women are planning trips by scrolling Reddit threads from 2019, cross-referencing TikToks, and getting safety advice from male backpackers who've never experienced the same risks. It's insane that this is still the state of travel tech in 2025 and going into 2026. Solo female travel is exploding with 71% of solo travelers are now women, searches are up 131% YoY yet they're using tools built for a different era and different concerns. The solution: a map-based safety layer where verified female travelers rate neighborhoods on metrics that actually matter. Green zones for "walked alone at midnight, felt fine." Red zones for "multiple harassment reports." Real data on lighting, staff responsiveness, actual safety. Kinda like what Pieter Levels built with Hoodmaps but in a new category. Distribution is 400K+ member travel Facebook groups, and paying micro travel influencers to create content about it. Monetization is $30/month memberships + $500/month hotel safety certifications. The demand is screaming at you from every travel forum. Why I like the idea: - makes the world a better place - possible to vibe code - proven biz model - creators in the space open to sponsorship at reasonable prices - prob not a venture backable product but still opportunity for someone who is interested in cash flow - Probably gets acquired by Expedia or something down the road if you nail PMF. In today's episode of @startupideaspod (are you following?) this startup idea broken down with... 1 trend im paying attention to 1 news item im paying attention 1 startup framework I love 1 AI product I'm interested in using ...

kinda crazy that we have self-driving cars but still send email calendar invites

I wish DMs on X were a pleasure to use.

"A few ways to make a million dollars"

I'm starting to DM people who want to work with me now. Btw, I don't want to limit this to just vibe coders or marketers. If you want to work with me, whoever you are and you want to build internet businesses long term, LMK. Open to buying businesses and starting new ones.GREG ISENBERG: If you’ve ever wanted to work with me, LMK. Looking for exceptional designers, operators, vibe coders, marketers and engineers who think long-term. Like or reply to this tweet if that’s you. I'll DM the 10 most interesting ones this week. I'd be honored to work with you Link: https://x.com/gregisenberg/status/1988038966910619794

If you’ve ever wanted to work with me, LMK. Looking for exceptional designers, operators, vibe coders, marketers and engineers who think long-term. Like or reply to this tweet if that’s you. I'll DM the 10 most interesting ones this week. I'd be honored to work with you

i think the best city to build a startup from is usually the city you as the founder are the happiest and can lock in the hardest shopify started in ottawa. supercell from helsinki. spotify from stockholm etc your output is tied to your environment, your focus, your happiness

I'm 6 years sober from taking VC money

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but 99% of the money VCs invest isn’t theirs. General partners usually commit 1–2% of a fund and the other 98-99% comes from pension funds, endowments, HNWs and institutions spread across ~30+ bets per fund. Their model works if 10% of those bets crush it and the rest are written off with a shrug. As a founder, you don’t get that luxury. You have one bet, one shot, one life tied to the outcome. I wish someone told me this, so maybe it's helpful to one person out there as their navigating their founder journey. I'm rooting for you.

once you make your first $1 on the internet, it completely rewires your brain few things feel better than watching an idea in your head become something real in the world.

30 ways to find your next $10K+ MRR idea for 2026: 1. Read GitHub issues and look for recurring pain points developers ignore. 2. Set Reddit alerts for “I wish someone would build…” and validate demand. 3. Build an agent around a single recurring vertical Upwork task that pays well. 4. Monitor API changelogs and build integrations the day they launch. 5. Summarize 1-star Chrome Store reviews with ChatGPT and fix the top three complaints. 6. Audit browser DevTools to see what power users still do manually. 7. Reverse-engineer topProduct Hunt hits, then apply AI to improve them. 8. Read YouTube tutorial comments to see what viewers still can’t figure out. 9. Watch Twitch streamers and note what workflows interrupt their flow. 10. Scan job listings for repeated “must-know” tools; build easier versions. 11. Dig through graveyard from companies like Google and ship the best abandoned projects. 12. Implement new AI research papers as usable web apps. 13. Explore niche subreddits and find problems that appear every week. 14. Review SaaS feature requests and build what the big players delay. 15. Connect open-source tools that don’t yet talk to each other. 16. Track “Chrome extension for X” search volume to spot new demand. 17. Feed GPT the top extension descriptions and ask for adjacent product ideas. 18. Use Perplexity Deep research etc to mine podcast transcripts on people's daily frustrations they’re telling you what to build. 19. Follow changelogs and tech-stack migrations of popular startups; build the missing glue. 20. Look at Zapier’s most-used zaps and each one could be an autonomous agent. 21. Track “AI for X” or “agent for X” search queries with SerpAPI. 22. Analyze public Notion templates and build vertical agents around them. 23. Browse LinkedIn for people describing manual data tasks and productize one. 24. Watch how startups use ChatGPT for customer support and make a vertical agent from it. 25. Rebuild niche directories (lawyers, th...

the FIRST gold rush was from 1847 to 1855, and i think we’re LIVING in a new AI gold rush now. this time: – picks + shovels = prompts + AI agents – railroads = openai, aws, v0, X, stripe etc – gold = attention, data, distribution – land grabs = ai-first domains + keywords – miners = builders automating boring work – mining towns = niche discords + communities – saloons = X, short form video – gold pans = claude code, cursor, lovable etc – mentors = youtube + pods – hardware stores = marketplaces for agents + templates – prospecting = searching reddit, docs, search consoles – speculators = people flipping AI tools – outlaws = folks scraping sites and charging – sheriffs = devs enforcing rate limits + terms – folk songs = meme posts and screenshots that turn products into movements – blacksmiths = engineers building the quiet tools everyone depends on - rail tycoons = VC-backed founders building infrastructure everyone else pays to use – boomtown barons = indie hacking builders who automate boring ops, capture niche data, and cash-flow kinda feels like a gold rush out there right now. not everyone will win, but worth a shot. you need a browser, a niche and a a good idea. the first gold rush ran on shovels... this one runs on code. this AI gold rush started in 2022, and no one knows when it will end. start digging.

dear founders, build like the clock’s running out. the window is open but it won’t stay. for the first time in history, you have free distribution from social platforms and infinite leverage from AI tools. you can reach millions without permission. the internet is handing out unfair advantages to anyone bold enough to use them so... ship before you understand it. clarity comes from commits. half your roadmap is ego, delete it. launch "ugly". talk to users every day. build what you wish existed. best ideas are the most obvious painful. go niche. no, go superniche. vertical is your moat. clarity comes from commits. half your roadmap might be ego, delete it. make ugly things until they work. share prototypes that break. kill what doesn’t grow. use AI as leverage, not decoration. test ten things before breakfast. delete your roadmap. double down on what works. design for clarity, not cleverness. brand before code. write daily. post your lessons. find your first hundred users manually. distribution is the new product. attention is the new funding. taste is the new code. build small cults. scale later. automate boring things. keep the human parts human. study why things spread. study why things die. pricing is positioning. aesthetics are trust. make people feel something. ignore haters. build in weird corners of the internet. break things publicly. pivot loudly. consistency compounds. only raise VC if you dream of going IPO one day. otherwise, cash-flow is your BFF. your network is distribution. your story is marketing. your design is psychology. ship like it’s day one. iterate like you’re behind. stay obsessed. learn faster. think longer. risk embarrassment. make noise. build the thing that keeps you up at night. money follows obsession. stay in motion. stay loud. stay building. distribution is an art form now. AI makes it easy to make things; the hard part is making things that matter. build like the world’s ending in a year but your idea has to outlive it w...

we need more billionaires

it’s not about how much MRR you have with your startup, it’s about how many HAPPY customers you have

KEEP GOING