[acrooks]

In my experience (enterprise software), customers buy our products not because we have a moat or some hard-to-achieve technical advantage but because they can speak to us in their words, they know we care, and we try solve their problems quickly.

Just yesterday I was speaking with the COO of a $200M/yr revenue company in the supply chain space. He'd learned Claude Code and built a couple apps to solve internal problems but reached out to talk to us. I asked him "you've been able to build some really impressive tools, clearly you can solve your own problems, why are you talking to me?" And he said "I have a business to run. I shouldn't be coding. I need somebody who understands my business & can solve my problems without taking a lot of my time."

Is there a cheaper way for him to solve his problems? Absolutely. But he wants to put the key in the ignition and know the car will turn on every time without thinking about it. There is an endless list of problems to solve; I don't think software businesses are going anywhere anytime soon.

[rubenvanwyk]

This should be the top comment. The thing about growth of businesses overall, is that they want outsourced capacity (that’s what employees or contractors are) and that dynamic doesn’t go away because of AI, because like the comment mentioned, it’s not reliable enough in the sense that it can accept high-context vague instructions and ‘figure it out’ like an enterprise developer can.

[gnz11]

No, they want "outsourced capacity" from contractors with domain specific expertise. Too many freelance/indie contractors on here scratching their heads as to why to can't land clients or jobs — you need domain expertise and experience, not just the ability to write code.

[liqilin1567]

> There is an endless list of problems to solve

As an indie hacker I often struggle to find new ideas. Are there any practical strategies for discovering these real pain points?

[ativzzz]

The best way to get an idea is to do something for 5-10+ years, learn the limitations, learn what's missing.

2nd best way is to meet those people and talk to them. The more of them from different backgrounds you talk to, the more ideas you can get

[acrooks]

Talk to customers. Listen to their problems. Build a prototype. See if they will pay for it. Repeat.

As a founder I spend as much time as I can with customers. They tell us what to build.

[dimgl]

One of the better, more levelheaded responses here.

[fredthomsen]

A PM I've worked with many times always used to say, "They want an easy button! It's that simple!."

[mamcx]

Yeah, this is how we survive.

I even dream of build tools for business to make apps (like Air table, but better) and even if you can do anything that do, perfectly, the software they need not means they want to babysit it all the time.

Is like the person that knows how cook, amazingly, yet hire a chef for take care of it most days.

[hahahahhaah]

Obviously a COO shouldnt be prompting Claude Code but your competition is someone in their team doing the same. The person in their team is trusted and knows the business.

[mattmanser]

In my experience, most employees have no clue how their business works.

They know how their tiny bit works, and can even often misunderstand why they are even doing what they're doing.

[LastTrain]

Or maybe COO was using it for leverage

[another_twist]

I mean its a matter of RoI, isnt it ? Investing in your existing partnership means that specific business can come to you for their problems rather than work up so much expertise bloat. I suppose there a point after which more expertise hurts a business.