The SaaS Idea Funnel: Converting 100 Raw Concepts Into 3 Worth Building

Most founders approach SaaS ideas backward. They fall in love with their first concept, spend months building it, and then wonder why nobody cares. The reality? Your first idea is rarely your best idea, and your best idea needs systematic validation before it deserves your time.

The problem isn't finding SaaS ideas—it's filtering them. You need a funnel that processes volume at the top and outputs validated opportunities at the bottom. This article breaks down the exact filtering system that converts 100 raw concepts into 3 worth building.

Why Most Founders Skip the Filtering Stage

You've probably experienced this: you get excited about a SaaS idea, immediately start thinking about features and tech stack, maybe even open your code editor. Three weeks later, you realize the market is saturated, the problem isn't painful enough, or you've lost interest.

The filtering stage feels like delay. It feels like you're not making progress. But filtering is progress. Every bad idea you eliminate early saves you months of wasted development time.

Successful founders don't build faster—they filter better. They understand that choosing the right SaaS idea is more important than execution speed.

The Four-Stage Filtering Funnel

The funnel has four distinct stages, each with specific criteria and elimination rates:

Stage 1: Raw Collection (100 ideas → 30 ideas)

• Elimination rate: 70%
• Time investment: 1 hour per idea
• Focus: Basic viability screening

Stage 2: Market Validation (30 ideas → 10 ideas)

• Elimination rate: 67%
• Time investment: 3 hours per idea
• Focus: Demand evidence and competition analysis

Stage 3: Deep Validation (10 ideas → 5 ideas)

• Elimination rate: 50%
• Time investment: 8 hours per idea
• Focus: Customer conversations and willingness to pay

Stage 4: Final Selection (5 ideas → 3 ideas)

• Elimination rate: 40%
• Time investment: 20 hours per idea
• Focus: Technical feasibility and personal fit

Let's break down each stage with specific criteria and real examples.

Stage 1: Raw Collection and Basic Viability (100 → 30)

At this stage, you're gathering ideas from multiple sources without judgment. Your goal is volume, not quality. Use systematic research methods to collect ideas from Reddit threads, Twitter conversations, support forums, and your own workflow frustrations.

But even at this early stage, you need basic filters:

The 60-Second Viability Test

For each raw idea, ask these five questions:

1. Can I explain the problem in one sentence?

If you can't articulate the problem clearly, you don't understand it well enough. Vague problems lead to vague solutions that nobody buys.

Good: "Marketing agencies waste 6 hours per week manually resizing images for different social platforms."

Bad: "Marketing is hard and people need better tools."

2. Does this problem occur frequently?

One-time problems don't make good SaaS products. You need recurring pain points that justify ongoing subscriptions.

Daily problems > Weekly problems > Monthly problems > Occasional problems

3. Is the target customer identifiable?

You should be able to name the specific person or role who experiences this problem. "Everyone" is not a target customer.

Good: "E-commerce managers at Shopify stores with 100-1000 orders per month"

Bad: "Anyone who uses the internet"

4. Can I build an MVP in 4-8 weeks?

Be brutally honest about scope. Ideas requiring machine learning models, complex integrations, or regulatory compliance should be eliminated unless you have specific expertise.

5. Would I personally pay for this solution?

This isn't about building only for yourself, but if you wouldn't pay for it, why would anyone else? This filter catches ideas that sound clever but solve trivial problems.

Real Example: Filtering in Action

Raw Idea #1: "A tool that helps people find the best coffee shops"

• Can't explain the specific problem clearly (eliminated)

Raw Idea #2: "Automated invoice reconciliation for accounting teams"

• Clear problem: Manual reconciliation takes hours
• Occurs weekly/monthly (frequent enough)
• Target: Accountants at companies with 10-50 employees
• Buildable: API integrations with accounting software
• Would pay: Yes, time savings justify cost
• Passes to Stage 2

Raw Idea #3: "AI that predicts stock market movements"

• Requires advanced ML expertise (eliminated)

Documentation System for Stage 1

Create a simple spreadsheet with these columns:

• Idea name
• One-sentence problem description
• Frequency of problem
• Target customer
• Build time estimate
• Personal interest (1-5)
• Pass/Fail

Spend no more than 60 minutes per idea at this stage. You're looking for obvious red flags, not conducting deep research.

Stage 2: Market Validation (30 → 10)

You've now got 30 ideas that pass basic viability. Stage 2 is about finding evidence that other people care about these problems as much as you think they do.

The Evidence Collection Framework

For each idea, collect three types of evidence:

1. Search Volume Evidence

Use free tools like Google Trends, Ubersuggest, or AnswerThePublic to verify people are actively searching for solutions.

Look for:

• Monthly search volume above 500 for problem-related keywords
• Upward or stable trend over 12 months
• Related questions and long-tail variations

If nobody is searching for solutions, either the problem isn't painful enough or your target market doesn't search online for answers.

2. Discussion Evidence

Find conversations about this problem in the last 90 days. Check:

• Reddit threads (10+ upvotes or comments)
• Twitter/X discussions (genuine complaints, not promotional)
• LinkedIn posts from target customer personas
• Niche forums and communities

You're looking for emotional language: "frustrating," "waste of time," "there has to be a better way." Mild annoyance doesn't convert to paying customers.

Our guide on mining Reddit for validated SaaS ideas shows exactly what these conversations look like.

3. Competition Evidence

Paradoxically, competition is a positive signal at this stage. It means:

• The problem is real enough that others are solving it
• Customers are willing to pay for solutions
• There's a proven business model

What you're looking for:

• 2-5 existing competitors (not zero, not 50)
• Competitors with obvious weaknesses (bad reviews, missing features, poor UX)
• Price points that suggest profitability ($29-299/month range)

Zero competition usually means no market. Fifty competitors means you're late to a saturated space.

The Market Validation Scorecard

Create a simple scoring system for each idea:

Search Volume (0-3 points)

• 3 points: 5,000+ monthly searches
• 2 points: 1,000-5,000 monthly searches
• 1 point: 500-1,000 monthly searches
• 0 points: Under 500 monthly searches

Discussion Activity (0-3 points)

• 3 points: Multiple active discussions per week
• 2 points: Several discussions per month
• 1 point: Occasional mentions
• 0 points: No recent discussions

Competition Health (0-4 points)

• 4 points: 2-5 competitors with clear weaknesses
• 3 points: 6-10 competitors with some gaps
• 2 points: 1 competitor or 10+ competitors
• 1 point: 20+ saturated competitors
• 0 points: No competitors at all

Total Score: 10 points possible

• 8-10 points: Strong market validation
• 5-7 points: Moderate validation, proceed with caution
• 0-4 points: Weak validation, eliminate

Keep only ideas scoring 7 or higher. This gives you roughly 10 ideas for Stage 3.

Stage 3: Deep Validation (10 → 5)

This is where most founders skip ahead and start building. Don't. Stage 3 is about talking to real humans who have the problem you want to solve.

Your goal: Have conversations with 10-15 people in your target market for each idea. These aren't sales calls—they're research conversations.

Finding People to Interview

Where to find interview candidates:

For B2B Ideas:

• LinkedIn: Search for job titles, send personalized connection requests
• Industry Slack communities and Discord servers
• Subreddits for specific professions
• Cold email to companies (keep it short and respectful)

For B2C/Prosumer Ideas:

• Reddit threads where people complain about the problem
• Twitter/X users who've tweeted about the issue
• Facebook groups related to the niche
• Online communities and forums

Your outreach message should be honest and brief:

"Hi [Name], I noticed your comment about [specific problem]. I'm researching this issue and would love to hear more about your experience. Would you have 15 minutes for a quick call? Not selling anything—genuinely trying to understand the problem better."

Response rates vary, but expect 10-20% for cold outreach, higher for warm connections.

The Validation Interview Script

Structure your 15-minute conversation around these questions:

Understanding the Problem (5 minutes)

• Tell me about the last time you experienced [problem]
• How often does this happen?
• What's the impact when it happens? (time lost, money lost, frustration level)
• Walk me through your current solution or workaround

Willingness to Pay (5 minutes)

• Have you looked for solutions to this problem?
• What have you tried? Why didn't it work?
• If a solution existed that [key benefit], what would it be worth to you?
• How much do you currently spend on [related category]?

Validation Signals (5 minutes)

• Who else on your team experiences this problem?
• What would have to be true for you to switch to a new solution?
• If I built this, would you be interested in trying an early version?

The magic question that separates real pain from mild annoyance: "On a scale of 1-10, how painful is this problem? And what would make it a 10?"

Anything below a 7 is probably not painful enough to convert to paying customers.

Red Flags That Eliminate Ideas

During these conversations, watch for:

• "Nice to have" language: If they say "that would be cool" instead of "I need this," eliminate the idea
• No current spending: If they're not paying for any solution (even manual labor or workarounds), they won't pay for yours
• Complex buying process: If they mention "I'd need to get approval from..." multiple times, B2B sales cycles will be too long
• Inconsistent problem: If different people describe the problem differently, you don't have a clear target

You should eliminate roughly half your ideas at this stage based on these conversations. If all 10 ideas still seem viable, you're not being critical enough.

For more structured validation approaches, check out our 27-point validation checklist.

Stage 4: Final Selection (5 → 3)

You've now got 5 ideas with genuine market validation and customer interest. Stage 4 is about choosing which ones to actually build based on technical feasibility and personal fit.

The Technical Feasibility Audit

For each remaining idea, map out the MVP feature set and technical requirements:

Core Features (Must-Have for Launch)

List only the features absolutely necessary for the product to solve the core problem. Be ruthless. Your MVP should be almost embarrassingly simple.

Example for invoice reconciliation tool:

• Upload invoices (PDF)
• Connect to accounting software (QuickBooks API)
• Match line items automatically
• Flag discrepancies
• Export reconciliation report

That's it. No dashboards, no analytics, no team features, no mobile app.

Technical Complexity Assessment

Rate each component:

• Simple: You've built this before or it's straightforward CRUD
• Moderate: New to you but well-documented with libraries/APIs available
• Complex: Requires learning new technologies or solving novel problems
• Very Complex: Needs specialized expertise you don't have

If more than 30% of your MVP is "Complex" or "Very Complex," consider eliminating the idea or finding a technical co-founder.

Development Time Estimate

Be honest about your available time and skill level:

• 4 weeks: Simple MVP with existing tools and frameworks
• 8 weeks: Moderate complexity with some new learning required
• 12+ weeks: Complex integrations or novel features

Ideas requiring more than 12 weeks to MVP should be eliminated unless you have exceptional conviction and runway.

The Personal Fit Assessment

Technical feasibility isn't enough. You need personal alignment with the idea because you'll be working on it for months or years.

Interest Sustainability Test

Ask yourself:

• Am I genuinely curious about this problem space?
• Would I read industry blogs and forums about this topic voluntarily?
• Can I see myself talking to customers in this niche regularly?
• Does this align with where I want my career to go?

If you're building a tool for accountants but find accounting boring, you'll struggle to maintain motivation through the difficult early stages.

Unfair Advantage Evaluation

Do you have any specific advantages for this idea?

• Domain expertise in the industry
• Existing network in the target market
• Technical skills particularly suited to the solution
• Personal experience with the problem

Ideas where you have an unfair advantage are more likely to succeed. You'll build faster, market better, and understand customers deeper than competitors.

Lifestyle Compatibility Check

Consider the operational reality:

• Does this require 24/7 support? (eliminates some ideas for solo founders)
• Will customers expect immediate responses? (B2B vs B2C differences)
• Does this require being in specific time zones?
• Can this be automated or does it need constant manual work?

Some profitable ideas create lifestyles you don't want. A monitoring tool that pages you at 3am is profitable but potentially miserable.

The Final Scoring Matrix

Create a weighted score for your final 5 ideas:

Market Opportunity (35% weight)

• Market size and growth
• Competition gaps
• Customer willingness to pay

Technical Feasibility (25% weight)

• Complexity of MVP
• Your skill match
• Time to launch

Personal Fit (25% weight)

• Interest level
• Unfair advantages
• Lifestyle compatibility

Strategic Value (15% weight)

• Learning opportunities
• Network effects
• Future expansion potential

Rank each category 1-10 for each idea, apply weights, and calculate total scores.

Your top 3 scores become your buildable ideas.

What to Do With Your Three Validated Ideas

You now have three SaaS ideas that have passed rigorous filtering. Here's how to proceed:

Build MVPs Sequentially, Not Simultaneously

Don't try to build all three at once. Pick your #1 ranked idea and commit to getting it to MVP and first customer. Only if it definitively fails should you move to idea #2.

Most founders underestimate how much focus matters. One product with 100% of your attention beats three products with 33% attention each.

Our guide on building SaaS ideas in a weekend can help you move quickly from validation to MVP.

Set Clear Failure Criteria

Before you start building, define what failure looks like:

• No paying customers after 3 months of active marketing
• Unable to get 10 trial signups
• Customer churn above 15% monthly
• Negative unit economics (CAC > LTV)

Having clear failure criteria prevents you from working on dying ideas for too long. Know when to pivot or abandon.

Keep Ideas #2 and #3 Warm

Don't completely abandon your backup ideas:

• Continue monitoring discussions and trends in those spaces
• Maintain relationships with potential customers you interviewed
• Track competitor developments
• Update your validation research quarterly

If idea #1 fails, you can immediately move to idea #2 without starting from scratch.

Common Filtering Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake #1: Filtering Too Slowly

Some founders spend weeks researching each idea at Stage 1. This defeats the purpose of the funnel. Early stages should be quick and brutal. You're looking for reasons to eliminate ideas, not reasons to keep them.

Speed guideline:

• Stage 1: 1 hour per idea maximum
• Stage 2: 3 hours per idea maximum
• Stage 3: 8 hours per idea (mostly interview time)
• Stage 4: 20 hours per idea (includes technical prototyping)

Mistake #2: Keeping Ideas You Love Despite Evidence

You'll fall in love with certain ideas. Maybe they're clever, or they solve a problem you personally experience, or they just feel right. But if the evidence says no, you have to let them go.

The funnel only works if you follow the criteria objectively. Emotional attachment to ideas is the enemy of good filtering.

Mistake #3: Eliminating Ideas Too Quickly

Conversely, don't eliminate ideas based on gut feeling alone. Use the criteria at each stage. Some of the best SaaS ideas seem boring or niche at first glance but have excellent fundamentals.

The point of systematic filtering is to override your biases, both positive and negative.

Mistake #4: Skipping Customer Conversations

Stage 3 is the most important and most commonly skipped stage. Founders think they can validate through desk research alone. You can't.

Customer conversations reveal:

• The actual language people use to describe problems
• Hidden objections you didn't anticipate
• Related problems that might be better opportunities
• Whether people will actually pay (not just say they will)

No amount of Google searching replaces talking to 10-15 real humans.

Adapting the Funnel to Your Situation

This funnel assumes you're starting from scratch with 100 raw ideas. Adapt it to your situation:

If you only have 20-30 ideas: Spend more time at Stage 1 collecting more ideas using systematic research methods. The funnel works better with more input volume.

If you're a technical founder: Weight Stage 4 technical feasibility lower (15%) and market opportunity higher (45%). Your technical skills give you more flexibility.

If you're a non-technical founder: Weight Stage 4 technical feasibility higher (35%) and focus on no-code opportunities. Complexity is more constraining for you.

If you have domain expertise: You can move faster through Stage 2 and 3 for ideas in your domain. You already know the market and have access to customers.

If you're building with AI tools: Technical feasibility matters less than it used to. Tools like Claude, Cursor, and v0 dramatically reduce development time. Adjust your complexity tolerance upward.

Maintaining Your Idea Pipeline

The funnel isn't a one-time exercise. Successful founders maintain a continuous pipeline of ideas:

Weekly Idea Collection (30 minutes)

• Review Reddit threads in target niches
• Check Product Hunt launches
• Note problems you encounter personally
• Scan Twitter/X for complaints in your space

Add 5-10 raw ideas to your Stage 1 spreadsheet weekly. This ensures you always have options if your current project fails.

Monthly Validation Updates (2 hours)

• Re-check search volumes for ideas in Stage 2
• Look for new competitors or competitor failures
• Review customer interview notes for patterns
• Update scores based on new information

Markets change. An idea that scored poorly six months ago might be ready now.

Quarterly Deep Dives (8 hours)

• Take 2-3 ideas from Stage 2 to Stage 3
• Conduct new customer interviews
• Prototype technical approaches for Stage 4 ideas
• Evaluate whether to pivot your current project

This continuous process means you're never starting from zero if you need to pivot or start a new project.

Real Example: Following the Funnel

Let me walk through a real example of how this funnel works in practice.

Stage 1: Raw Collection

Starting with 100 ideas collected from Reddit, Twitter, and personal observations. After 60-second viability tests:

• 70 eliminated (vague problems, not frequent, unbuildable, etc.)
• 30 moved to Stage 2

Stage 2: Market Validation

One idea that passed: "Automated social media content resizing for agencies"

Evidence collected:

• Search volume: 2,400/month for "resize images for social media" and variants
• Reddit discussions: 15 threads in r/marketing and r/socialmedia in past 90 days
• Competition: 4 existing tools, all with complaints about pricing or missing features
• Score: 8/10 (moved to Stage 3)

Stage 3: Deep Validation

Interviewed 12 marketing agency employees and freelancers:

• 10/12 described it as a 7+ pain point
• Current solution: Manual resizing in Canva/Photoshop (1-2 hours per week)
• Willingness to pay: $29-49/month mentioned by 8/12 people
• 7/12 said they'd try an MVP

Stage 4: Final Selection

Technical assessment:

• Core MVP: Upload image, select platforms, download resized versions
• Complexity: Moderate (image processing libraries available)
• Time estimate: 6 weeks
• Personal fit: High interest in design tools, existing network in marketing

Final score: 8.2/10 (ranked #1 of final 5 ideas)

Decision: Build this as primary project.

Getting Started Today

You don't need 100 ideas to start using this funnel. You can begin with whatever ideas you currently have:

Action Steps for This Week:

1. Create a simple spreadsheet with your current ideas (even if it's just 5-10)
2. Run each through the 60-second viability test
3. For ideas that pass, collect basic market validation evidence
4. Identify 2-3 ideas worth customer conversations
5. Draft outreach messages to potential interview candidates

The funnel becomes more powerful over time as you build your idea pipeline. Start small, but start systematically.

For additional frameworks and tools to support your filtering process, explore our validation stack guide and idea scoring system.

Conclusion: Volume Creates Quality

The counterintuitive truth about finding great SaaS ideas: you need to process many mediocre ideas to find the excellent ones. The funnel works because it systematizes rejection.

Most founders fail because they build the first idea they think of. Successful founders build the best idea they've validated. The difference is the filtering process in between.

Start collecting ideas today. Run them through the funnel ruthlessly. And when you emerge with 3 validated opportunities, you'll have something most founders never get: confidence that you're building something people actually want.

The best SaaS ideas aren't found—they're filtered.