SaaS Ideas from Quora Questions: Mining Q&A Sites for Products

Quora receives over 300 million monthly visitors asking and answering questions about real problems. Every question represents a knowledge gap, and many of these gaps represent opportunities for profitable SaaS products. While most founders chase ideas from online communities or Reddit threads, Quora offers something unique: explicitly stated problems with context, urgency indicators, and audience size metrics built right into the platform.

This guide shows you exactly how to mine Quora and similar Q&A platforms for validated SaaS ideas that people are actively searching for solutions to solve.

Why Quora Is a Goldmine for SaaS Ideas

Unlike social media where people share opinions, Quora users ask specific questions when they're actively looking for solutions. This creates three distinct advantages:

Problem clarity: Questions are framed as explicit problems. "How do I track employee time across multiple projects?" is clearer than a vague tweet about productivity struggles.

Built-in validation metrics: View counts, follower counts, and answer engagement tell you how many people care about this problem. A question with 50,000 views and 200 followers signals significant demand.

Buying intent indicators: Questions like "What's the best tool for..." or "Is there software that can..." show people ready to pay for solutions. They're past the problem recognition stage and actively seeking products.

The platform also surfaces related questions automatically, helping you understand problem clusters and adjacent opportunities that might make better B2B SaaS ideas.

The Quora Mining Framework: 5 Steps to Find SaaS Ideas

Step 1: Identify High-Value Topics and Spaces

Start by targeting Quora Spaces and topics where business users congregate. These areas generate questions with commercial intent:

Business operations topics: Project management, team collaboration, workflow automation, business intelligence, customer relationship management

Professional development spaces: Career advancement, skill development, professional networking, resume building, interview preparation

Industry-specific areas: Real estate technology, legal practice management, healthcare administration, e-commerce operations, agency management

Technical workflows: Software development, data analysis, marketing automation, content creation, design operations

Follow 15-20 relevant Spaces and topics. Quora will start surfacing questions in your feed, but you'll also want to search proactively.

Step 2: Use Advanced Search Operators for Problem Discovery

Quora's search is powerful when you use specific query patterns. These search formats reveal different types of SaaS opportunities:

Tool-seeking questions:

• "What's the best tool for [task]?"
• "Is there software that can [function]?"
• "What do you use to [accomplish goal]?"
• "Looking for a [category] tool that [specific feature]"

Workaround questions (indicating missing solutions):

• "How do I [task] without [expensive tool]?"
• "Manual way to [accomplish something]?"
• "Hack for [problem] using [basic tools]?"

Frustration questions (showing pain points):

• "Why is [existing tool] so [negative attribute]?"
• "Problems with [category] software?"
• "[Tool name] alternatives that don't [pain point]?"

Integration questions (showing workflow gaps):

• "How to connect [Tool A] with [Tool B]?"
• "Export data from [Tool A] to [Tool B]?"
• "Sync [data type] between [platforms]?"

Search each pattern within your target topics. Sort by "Most Viewed" to find questions with proven demand.

Step 3: Analyze Question Engagement Metrics

Not all questions represent equal opportunities. Use these metrics to prioritize:

View count: Questions with 10,000+ views indicate widespread interest. Questions with 50,000+ views suggest significant market size.

Follower count: High follower counts (100+) mean people want updates on solutions. They're actively monitoring for answers, indicating urgency.

Answer quality gap: Questions with many answers but low upvotes suggest unsatisfying solutions. This gap indicates opportunity. If the top answer has fewer than 50 upvotes on a question with 20,000 views, existing solutions aren't resonating.

Recent activity: Questions asked or updated in the last 6 months show current, unsolved problems. Old questions with recent activity spikes indicate renewed relevance.

Question specificity: Detailed questions with context show sophisticated users who understand their problem deeply. These users typically have budget and buying authority.

Create a spreadsheet tracking promising questions with these metrics. This becomes your SaaS idea research toolkit.

Step 4: Read Answers for Solution Gap Analysis

The answers reveal what solutions exist and where they fall short:

Workaround answers: When top answers describe multi-step manual processes or cobbled-together tool combinations, you've found a solution gap. Example: "I use Google Sheets with Zapier connecting to Slack and manually check it twice daily" indicates no good integrated solution exists.

Partial solutions: Answers that start with "Tool X does some of this, but..." show incomplete solutions. The "but" clause is your feature differentiation.

Price complaints: Comments about existing tools being "too expensive for small teams" or "overkill for simple needs" indicate micro-SaaS ideas opportunities.

Feature requests in answers: When responders say "I wish [Tool X] could also..." they're explicitly stating unmet needs.

No satisfying answers: Questions with many low-quality answers or people saying "I'm looking for this too" in comments show validated demand with no good solution.

This analysis helps you understand not just what problem to solve, but how existing solutions fail and what your differentiation should be.

Step 5: Validate with Cross-Platform Research

Once you identify a promising problem on Quora, validate it across other platforms:

Reddit validation: Search relevant subreddits for similar questions. If the problem appears across platforms, it's more likely to be widespread. Our guide on extracting SaaS ideas from Reddit shows you how.

Twitter search: Look for tweets expressing the same frustration. Twitter shows real-time pain and often includes buying intent signals.

LinkedIn verification: Search LinkedIn posts and comments in relevant industry groups. B2B problems validated on LinkedIn often have higher willingness to pay.

Product Hunt research: Check if anyone has launched a solution. Use our Product Hunt analysis guide to see what succeeded or failed and why.

GitHub Issues: For technical problems, search GitHub issues to see if developers are requesting similar features. Our GitHub mining guide explains this process.

Cross-platform validation significantly increases confidence that you've found a real, widespread problem worth solving.

Beyond Quora: Other Q&A Platforms for SaaS Ideas

Stack Exchange Network

Stack Overflow and its sister sites host technical questions from developers and professionals. Key sites for SaaS ideas:

Stack Overflow: Developer workflow problems, integration challenges, tooling gaps

Server Fault: System administration pain points, DevOps challenges, infrastructure management needs

Super User: Power user problems with software, productivity workflow issues

Ask Ubuntu/Unix Stack Exchange: Linux and open-source tool gaps

Look for highly upvoted questions tagged with "tools" or "workflow" that have no accepted answer or answers suggesting manual workarounds.

Reddit's Q&A Subreddits

While Reddit is primarily discussion-based, certain subreddits function as Q&A platforms:

r/AskReddit: Occasionally surfaces workflow and productivity questions with massive engagement

r/NoStupidQuestions: People ask about tools and solutions without fear of judgment

Industry-specific Ask subreddits: r/AskEngineers, r/AskMarketing, r/AskHR, etc. contain professional problems

r/SaaS and r/Entrepreneur: People explicitly ask about tools and solutions for business problems

Niche Professional Forums

Industry-specific forums often have dedicated Q&A sections:

Indie Hackers: Questions about building and running SaaS businesses

Hacker News: "Ask HN" posts about technical tools and solutions

Designer News: Design workflow and tool questions

WebmasterWorld: SEO and web management questions

Warrior Forum: Digital marketing and online business questions

These niche communities often have higher concentration of paying customers than general platforms.

Real SaaS Ideas Discovered from Quora Questions

Example 1: Meeting Transcript Organizer

Quora question: "How do I organize and search through Zoom meeting transcripts across multiple projects?"

Engagement: 15,000 views, 89 followers, asked 4 months ago

Answer analysis: Top answers suggest using Google Drive with manual folder organization or Notion with copy-pasted transcripts. No integrated solution mentioned.

SaaS opportunity: A tool that automatically imports Zoom/Teams/Meet transcripts, tags them by project and participant, makes them searchable, and surfaces action items across all meetings.

Validation signals: Similar questions on Reddit's r/ProductManagement, multiple LinkedIn posts about meeting note chaos, no direct competitor found on Product Hunt.

Build complexity: Medium - requires OAuth integrations with video platforms, text processing for action item extraction, search functionality. Could be built with AI assistance using tools covered in our Claude Code startup guide.

Example 2: Freelancer Invoice Follow-Up Automation

Quora question: "What's the best way to automatically follow up on unpaid invoices without seeming pushy?"

Engagement: 28,000 views, 156 followers, recent activity spike

Answer analysis: People suggest FreshBooks or QuickBooks, but commenters complain these are "too expensive" and "too complex" for simple freelancing. Many describe manual calendar reminders.

SaaS opportunity: Lightweight invoice follow-up tool that sends polite, customizable reminder sequences based on payment terms. Integrates with Stripe/PayPal, costs $10-15/month instead of $50+ for full accounting software.

Validation signals: r/freelance has weekly threads about unpaid invoices, Twitter has daily complaints about chasing payments, clear price sensitivity indicates micro-SaaS opportunity.

Build complexity: Low - primarily email automation with payment status webhooks. Could be validated quickly with a landing page.

Example 3: Contractor Compliance Tracker

Quora question: "How do companies track contractor certifications, insurance, and compliance documents?"

Engagement: 12,000 views, 67 followers, multiple answers from frustrated HR managers

Answer analysis: Answers describe Excel spreadsheets, shared Google Drives with inconsistent naming, and manual email reminders about expiring certifications. Enterprise solutions exist but are mentioned as "overkill for under 50 contractors."

SaaS opportunity: Contractor compliance dashboard that stores certificates, sends renewal reminders to contractors, alerts hiring managers about expirations, and maintains audit trail. Targets small to medium businesses with 10-100 contractors.

Validation signals: Similar questions in r/smallbusiness, LinkedIn posts from construction and IT services companies, clear enterprise alternative exists but is over-featured and overpriced.

Build complexity: Medium - document storage, expiration tracking, notification system, basic reporting. This represents the type of boring problem that wins.

How to Test Your Quora-Sourced SaaS Idea

Once you've identified a promising idea from Quora, validate it before building:

Answer the Original Question

Post a detailed answer to the Quora question explaining how you'd solve this problem. Describe your proposed solution's approach without revealing you're building it yet. Include a line like "I'm researching solutions in this space - would this approach work for your use case?"

Monitor responses and upvotes. If people engage positively and ask follow-up questions, you've confirmed interest. If your answer gets ignored despite the question having high engagement, your solution angle might be off.

Create a Landing Page

Build a simple landing page describing your solution. Include:

• Clear headline stating the problem you solve
• 3-4 key features addressing pain points from Quora answers
• Email signup for early access
• Optional: Pricing tiers to gauge willingness to pay

Share this landing page in your Quora answer (if allowed by Quora's policies) or in your profile. Track signup rate and user feedback.

Reach Out to Question Followers

Quora shows you some users who follow questions. Respectfully reach out via Quora messages or find them on LinkedIn:

"Hi [Name], I saw you're following the question about [problem] on Quora. I'm researching solutions in this space. Would you be open to a 15-minute call to discuss what you've tried and what would make an ideal solution?"

These conversations provide invaluable insights into problem nuances, willingness to pay, and must-have features. This is part of the validation playbook that successful founders use.

Monitor Question Activity

Follow the question and related questions. Set up Google Alerts for the question URL. When new people ask similar questions or comment on existing ones, you're seeing ongoing demand in real-time.

If question activity declines, the problem might be seasonal or fading. Increasing activity confirms growing pain.

Common Mistakes When Mining Quora for SaaS Ideas

Mistake 1: Focusing Only on Viral Questions

Questions with millions of views are often too broad ("What's the best productivity app?") or entertainment-focused. Questions with 10,000-100,000 views often hit the sweet spot of specific problem with meaningful audience.

Mistake 2: Ignoring Answer Quality

A question with 50 answers might seem validated, but if answers are high-quality and people are satisfied, there's no opportunity. Look for questions where answers are inadequate, contradictory, or describe workarounds.

Mistake 3: Missing the Real Problem

Sometimes the stated question isn't the real problem. Someone asking "How do I export data from Tool X?" might actually need "How do I analyze data from Tool X?" Read comments and related questions to understand the underlying need.

Mistake 4: Choosing Problems You Can't Monetize

Consumer questions with high engagement might not translate to paying customers. Focus on questions from business contexts, professional workflows, or areas where people already pay for tools. Our guide on why most SaaS ideas fail covers monetization mistakes in detail.

Mistake 5: Building Before Validating

Quora gives you access to the people who have the problem. Use this advantage to validate before building. Answer questions, engage with followers, and get feedback on your approach before writing code. The 90-day launch blueprint includes validation steps that prevent wasted development time.

Tools and Systems for Quora Research

Tracking Spreadsheet Template

Create a spreadsheet with these columns:

• Question URL
• Problem statement (your summary)
• View count
• Follower count
• Date asked/updated
• Top answer summary
• Solution gaps identified
• Related questions (links)
• Cross-platform validation (Reddit, Twitter, etc.)
• Priority score (1-10)
• Status (researching, validating, building, abandoned)

Update this weekly as you discover new questions and validate ideas.

Monitoring System

Set up these monitoring tools:

Quora Digest: Configure your email digest to include questions from your followed topics. Review weekly.

Google Alerts: Create alerts for key phrases like "[your niche] tool that can" or "software for [your niche]" to catch new questions.

RSS Feeds: Use Quora's topic RSS feeds (if available) or tools like Feedly to aggregate questions from multiple topics.

Browser Extension: Use Quora's browser extension or bookmarking tools to quickly save interesting questions for later analysis.

Analysis Workflow

Establish a weekly routine:

Monday: Review new questions from followed topics (30 minutes)

Wednesday: Deep dive into 3-5 promising questions, read all answers and comments, check metrics (1 hour)

Friday: Cross-platform validation for top 2 ideas, update tracking spreadsheet (1 hour)

This systematic approach, similar to the weekly SaaS idea sprint, ensures consistent idea flow without overwhelming your schedule.

Combining Quora with Other Research Methods

Quora works best as part of a comprehensive research strategy:

Quora + Customer Support Tickets: Validate Quora problems against real support data. If you have access to support tickets (your own or via mining support data), see if the same problems appear.

Quora + Job Boards: Questions about workflow problems often correlate with job postings requiring those skills. Our job board research guide shows how to find these connections.

Quora + Your Own Workflow: The most powerful combination is finding Quora questions about problems you personally experience. You'll build better solutions for problems you deeply understand.

Quora + LinkedIn: Use LinkedIn to find people asking similar questions in professional contexts, then validate willingness to pay through direct conversations.

From Quora Question to Launched Product

Here's a realistic timeline for turning a Quora-sourced idea into a launched SaaS:

Week 1-2: Discovery and validation

• Find and analyze promising questions
• Cross-platform validation
• Customer interviews with question followers

Week 3-4: Solution design

• Define core features based on answer analysis
• Create wireframes or mockups
• Build landing page and start collecting emails

Week 5-8: MVP development

• Build minimum viable version
• Focus on solving the core problem identified in questions
• Use AI development tools to accelerate development

Week 9-10: Beta testing

• Invite Quora question followers to test
• Gather feedback and iterate
• Refine based on actual usage

Week 11-12: Launch

• Public launch on Product Hunt, Hacker News
• Answer the original Quora question with your solution
• Reach out to everyone who engaged with the question

This timeline assumes part-time work. Full-time founders can compress this significantly.

Next Steps: Start Mining Quora Today

Quora and Q&A platforms offer a unique advantage: explicitly stated problems with built-in validation metrics and direct access to people who need solutions. Start your research today:

1. Identify 10 relevant Quora topics in your areas of expertise or interest
2. Follow those topics and enable notifications for new questions
3. Spend 30 minutes searching using the query patterns above
4. Create your tracking spreadsheet and log 5 promising questions
5. Analyze the top 2 questions deeply - read all answers, check metrics, search for the problem on other platforms

The best SaaS ideas come from systematic research across multiple channels. Quora should be one tool in your complete research toolkit. Combine it with other methods, validate thoroughly, and you'll find problems worth solving that people will pay for.

Remember: the goal isn't to find the perfect idea on Quora. It's to identify real problems with proven demand, then validate and refine until you have something people can't wait to use. Start mining questions today, and you might find your next profitable SaaS idea hiding in plain sight.

Ready to explore more ways to discover validated SaaS opportunities? Browse our complete collection of research methods and start building something people actually need.