The AI prompts I use before I build anything
12 AI prompts, 12 research hacks, and the process I use before I build anything. Part 1 of How to Build Something People Pay For.
This is Part 1 of How to Build Something People Pay For, an 8-part series on going from idea to revenue using AI. Each part comes with a free PDF playbook you can save.
I love building something from scratch and it's even more rewarding when the thing actually solves a real problem and makes someone's day a ton better.
An app to feel less lonely and save a ton on the exact clothing styles you love (hi, Lucky Sweater). Getting your favorite LA restaurant delivered to your door (hi, Bay Cities on Uber Eats, back in the day). Building a team of creative, kind content strategists to make sure Etsy sellers know how to best grow their businesses (hi, Etsy team).
As a non-technical founder, the Lucky Sweater MVP took me months of headaches and real money to help outsource my build (even when I built most of it on a low-code - thankful always for Bubble).
Now with AI, I could’ve done the initial build on my own in a week. That’s so cool. Imagine what we unlock if more women and more diverse builders start making things with AI.
But the other thing with AI is that it being that much easier to build, we can build hundreds of things in record time... that people don’t actually need.
I thought I’d launch a series of articles about building in today’s AI world and helping you actually build something people don’t just need, but are willing to pay for... built upon learnings from my own wins, mistakes, and basically things I wish I knew and how I would have done it differently, especially with AI as a tool, but not the answer.
Welcome to Part 1, friends!
Build a painkiller, not a vitamin
CB Insights analyzed 150+ startup post-mortems and found the #1 reason they fail: 42% built something nobody needed. Not running out of money (that was #2, at 29%). They solved a problem nobody cared about enough.
Some VCs sort every pitch into three buckets:
Candy. Fun for five minutes, forgotten by Thursday.
Vitamin. Good in theory. The meditation app you keep meaning to open.
Painkiller. The thing someone’s annoyed by right now and would pay to make stop.
Y Combinator calls the best version a “hair on fire” problem. If someone’s hair is literally on fire, they’re not reading reviews or waiting for a coupon code. They’ll grab whatever you hand them.
The pain is the tell
Remember waiting on hold to get a cab before Uber? People put up with that for decades because they assumed they had to. That resignation, where someone tolerates something annoying because they think there’s no alternative, is your signal.
I saw this firsthand at Uber. The pain was obvious in retrospect (call a dispatcher, wait 20 minutes, hope they show up, argue about the route) but people had normalized it so completely that they forgot to be frustrated. Same with ordering food before delivery apps. You’d call the restaurant, read your credit card number over the phone, and then call back 45 minutes later to ask where your food was. We just... accepted it.
The best problems hide in the things people have stopped complaining about, because they think nothing better exists.
Start with what you care about
Don’t hunt for problems in the abstract. Start with a niche you love or a problem you keep hitting yourself, because that’s where your advantage is hiding.
As Paul Graham wrote: “The very best startup ideas tend to have three things in common: they’re something the founders themselves want, that they themselves can build, and that few others realize are worth doing.” You’ll spot what others miss because you live in that world. And you’ll care enough to stick with it when things get hard (and they will get hard, probably sooner than you’d like).
That’s how my bridal directory sites started. I was planning my own wedding, drowning in so many wedding dress Instagram ads, and thought “there has to be a better way to browse and find the coolest vintage designers.” I was the customer. I knew the pain because I felt it every time I opened my inbox.
Indie Hackers is full of stories like this. Levels.fyi started because the founders were frustrated they couldn’t compare tech compensation across companies, and Nomad List started because Pieter Levels was a digital nomad who wanted to compare cities. The niche you already live in is where you have an unfair advantage.
Three founders who nailed it
Sara Blakely, Spanx. Fax-machine saleswoman, no business degree, $5K in savings. She cut the feet off her pantyhose because nothing worked under white pants. The product was her own workaround. She pitched Neiman Marcus by pulling a buyer into the bathroom to show the before-and-after. $4 million in sales the first year.
Melanie Perkins, Canva. She was teaching design software in Perth and watching students waste an entire semester just learning where the buttons were. Started narrow (yearbooks), then went wide. Heard “no” from 100+ investors before anyone said yes, and now the company is worth $26B.
The McDonald’s Milkshake. From Clayton Christensen’s Jobs to Be Done framework. Half of all milkshakes sold before 9 a.m., to commuters who needed something thick enough to last a boring drive. Not a treat. A tool. People hire products for a job, and that commuter’s job was “make this drive less miserable.” His HBR article on this is worth 10 minutes.
The pattern: the workaround is the signal. As Paul Graham also wrote: “The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. It’s to look for problems, preferably problems you have yourself.”
I use AI prompts to figure out whether an idea is a painkiller or a vitamin before I build anything. Below: all 12 prompts, which AI tool to use for what, 12 research hacks, and a reading list.
Which AI tool for what
Here’s what I use now. Perplexity for research with real sources you can click through. Claude for analyzing threads, synthesizing patterns, and arguing against your idea (it’s weirdly good at poking holes). Claude in Chrome for reading live web pages, so install that if you haven’t. ChatGPT for brainstorming, Gemini for recent data. Between Perplexity and Claude you’ll cover 90% of what you need, tbh.
The 12 prompts
1. Map where people hurt
“I’m exploring problems faced by [audience] in [industry/niche]. What are the most common complaints, frustrations, and unmet needs? Focus on forums, reviews, and social media. Give me specific examples with sources.”
When I ran this for brides, Perplexity surfaced a thread in r/weddingplanning where hundreds of people were complaining about vendor spam on The Knot. Two years old and still getting comments. Run this 2-3x with different audience angles, for example, “Busy working moms who’ve tried and abandoned meal kit subscriptions".
2. Sort vitamins from painkillers
Perplexity (follow-up)
“For each problem, sort: which are vitamins (nice-to-have) vs. painkillers (people already pay in money/time/workarounds)? Show evidence.”
“Brides want eco-friendly options” was a vitamin (no workarounds). “Getting spammed by vendors”? People were creating burner emails, building shared Google Docs of vetted vendors, paying for Zola over The Knot specifically to avoid spam. Rob Fitzpatrick calls these “currency” (time, money, reputation risk) that people are already spending. No currency spent = vitamin.
3. Read threads like a detective
“Analyze this thread. Core frustration? Workarounds? What language do they use? Pull exact quotes.”
In r/weddingplanning, Claude highlighted a comment I’d scrolled right past: “I literally made a fake email just to look at flowers on The Knot because I knew the second I used my real one I’d get 50 emails.” 400+ upvotes. Do this with 3-5 threads. Don’t just search Reddit, try Quora, Trustpilot, and niche Facebook groups too.
4. Follow the workarounds
“What DIY solutions or duct-taped fixes are people building? Which show the most effort? That effort is a proxy for willingness to pay.”
This is the gold. Blakely’s pantyhose. Airbnb’s founders selling cereal boxes to fund air mattress rentals. Slack starting as a gaming company’s internal tool. Gumroad starting because Sahil Lavingia wanted to sell a pencil icon and couldn’t find a simple way. If you find yourself thinking “why would anyone go to that much effort,” you’ve probably found something. That’s YC’s “schlep blindness” concept.
Read it yourself, really :)
This is the step most people skip, and it’s the one that has saved me from building the wrong thing more than once.
After running the prompts above, you’ll have a pile of AI-generated summaries. Those are useful, but don’t stop at the summary. Go read the messy posts yourself. The 1 AM venting, the typos, the run-on sentences, the all-caps frustration. AI is great at synthesizing patterns, but it smooths out the emotion, and the emotion is what tells you whether this is a real pain or just an interesting observation.
When someone writes “I literally spent my entire Saturday trying to figure this out and I want to scream,” that feels different than “users report frustration with the onboarding process.” People’s exact words are your proof, your landing page copy, your pitch deck opener. Read the threads yourself.
The real gut check
Friends will tell you your idea is great because they love you. Ignore them (lovingly). The real test is what strangers are doing right now: paying for a bad version of what you want to make, or duct-taping a workaround to survive without it. That’s a painkiller. If strangers aren’t doing either of those things, it might just be a vitamin you’ve convinced yourself is urgent because you’re excited.
This is where prompts 5-8 come in. They pressure-test the thing by forcing you to look at the competition, quantify the market, and let the AI argue against you. If your idea survives all of that, you’ve got something worth building.
5. Steal their exact words
“Extract the most vivid, emotional phrases people use to describe this problem. Raw language, not polished summaries. Group by theme.”
Real pain sounds like “I CANNOT believe there is no way to do this without giving my email to 47 vendors.”
6. Size up the alternatives
“Current solutions for [problem] in [niche]? What do users complain about most? Where are the gaps?”
If everyone says “I love this BUT...” that “but” is your product. Check AlternativeTo and G2 reviews filtered by 2-3 stars, because those are the people who wanted to love it and couldn’t quite get there.
7. Check it’s big enough
“How many people experience [problem]? Growing or shrinking? What do they spend? Cite sources.”
1,000 people at $50/month is $600K/year. Pieter Levels runs multiple million-dollar businesses solo, all from specific pain points. Use Google Trends + Glimpse to check if interest is growing.
8. Make the AI argue against you
“I think [problem] for [audience] is a strong idea. Tell me why I’m wrong. Biggest risks? Be brutally honest.”
When I ran this for a side project, Claude flagged seasonal demand patterns I hadn’t considered, and it completely changed my approach. Confirmation bias is the reason most validation is worthless, because you’ll read everything as confirming what you already believe. This prompt is the antidote.
9. Find the communities
“Most active online communities where [audience] discusses [topic]? Rank by engagement.”
A 5,000-person Facebook group where people post daily beats a 500K subreddit where nothing gets traction, so don’t just go by subscriber count. SparkToro is great for this too, because it shows you which podcasts and accounts your audience already follows.
10. Write the landing page test
“Write a one-paragraph product description solving [problem] for [audience]. Use their exact language. Then 3 headline variations.”
If the description makes you excited, that’s a good sign. Some founders post the headline on Twitter just to see if anyone responds, which is a zero-cost demand test that takes about 30 seconds.
11. Find who’s already trying
“Any startups solving [problem] for [audience]? Where are they falling short?”
Competition is a good sign, not a bad one, because it means people are already paying for something. Google was the 21st search engine, and it still won. Search Product Hunt for what launched in your space this year to see where the gaps are.
12. Map the money flow
“How much do [audience] spend dealing with [problem]? Tools, services, freelancers, time costs.”
If money is already flowing toward the problem, you’re not creating demand from scratch, you’re redirecting it. Starter Story has thousands of case studies of founders who found their market by following existing spending, and the numbers are often bigger than you’d expect.
Pro move: After all 12, paste your best findings into a new Claude chat: “What’s the single strongest painkiller here? Rank them.” Trust the evidence over your excitement.
12 research hacks
Sort Reddit by “Top > All time.” Top posts in r/smallbusiness, for example, are a goldmine of pain points that haven’t changed in years.
Search
site:reddit.com [topic] "I wish there was"in Google. I found a thread with 200+ brides describing the exact product they wanted. Also try"I gave up"and"shut up and take my money."Read the 3-star reviews on Amazon, G2, Trustpilot. “This would be perfect IF...” That IF is your product.
Screenshot “I’d pay for this” comments. I keep a running Google Doc of these.
Count the workarounds. Spreadsheets, Zapier chains, Notion databases held together with hope.
Steal their exact phrasing. Copyhackers calls this “review mining.” Write it down verbatim, typos and all.
Google “People Also Ask.” Each expandable question is a real question a real person typed.
Search Twitter/X for “[product] sucks.” Also try “[product] alternative” and “switched from [product].”
Browse Upwork and Fiverr. Same task posted repeatedly = product opportunity. Indie Hackers is full of founders who found their product this way.
Lurk in 3 Facebook groups for 2 weeks. Don’t post. Just read. I will die on this hill: lurking beats surveys every time.
Check Product Hunt. Buzz + bad reviews = the market is real, the execution is off.
Read competitors’ About pages. April Dunford calls this “positioning.” Steal the framing, not the product.
Toolkit
Find the pain: GummySearch, Perplexity, AnswerThePublic, SparkToro
Size it: Google Trends + Glimpse, Exploding Topics
Competition: Product Hunt, AlternativeTo, G2
Reading list
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick. Shortest, funniest business book I’ve read. I read it in one sitting on the L train.
Fall in Love with the Problem by Uri Levine (Waze). Love the problem, stay flexible on the solution.
Competing Against Luck by Clayton Christensen. The milkshake story I bring up at dinner parties (yes, I’m that person).
How to Get Startup Ideas by Paul Graham. I re-read this once a quarter, and I notice something new every time.
How to Get and Test Ideas by Michael Seibel. A 20-minute YC talk that’s worth watching before you do anything else on this list.
Also worth it: The Embedded Entrepreneur (Arvid Kahl), Deploy Empathy (Michele Hansen), Obviously Awesome (April Dunford). Podcasts: Lenny’s Podcast, How I Built This, My First Million.
Get the playbook
I put everything above into a PDF you can save, screenshot, or send to the group chat where you and your friends keep saying “we should build something.” All 12 prompts, the research hacks, the toolkit, the reading list. It’s attached below.
Part 2 coming soon
This was all about finding the problem. Part 2 covers the five conversations you need to have with real people (not your mom, not a survey) to find out if anyone cares enough to pay - the 7 questions to ask, the mistakes I made, and how to read the signals when people are being polite instead of honest.
This is part of How to Build Something People Pay For, an 8-part series. If you know someone who’s been sitting on an idea and hasn’t started, send them this post and subscribe so you don’t miss Part 2.
xo,
Carley