20 app/product/business ideas just for fun

We all have good ideas buried in our heads, but we shouldn’t expect our best ideas to surface on their own. We’ve got to go digging for them. Idea generation isn’t something we get for free. It’s something that has to be practiced.

I like writing down ideas and sharing my ideas with others. It's how I exercise my idea generating muscles. If the Indie Hackers community appreciates this kind of thing, then I'll try to share some new ideas every week!

Idea #1: An internet connected digital alarm clock with a companion app that pits people against each other in a competition that measures who can press their snooze buttons the fewest number of times in the morning

Idea #2: PC Part Picker for backpacking gear. Help me assemble a full kit. Show me what a cheap vs. expensive build looks like.

Idea #3: Click on an Instagram photo of the outdoors and seamlessly go into Google Street View to explore the area where the photo was taken. Same thing but for YouTube videos.

Idea #4: A tea strainer that’s also a thermometer that beeps when your tea reaches the optimal temperature for drinking

Idea #5: A feel good movie website that shares film reviews written exclusively by people who obsessively re-watch the films that they review. What makes someone watch the same movie 10+ times? Share the love.

Idea #6: While watching someone speedrun a video game, you can launch the game in your web browser exactly where the speedrunner is currently at, and then you can start racing them at home

Idea #7: If people are being assholes in a Twitch chat, they get quarantined to a parallel chat that’s filled with other people who were also being assholes, and they won’t be able to tell that they’ve been banished to a worse chat

Idea #8: Timers built into office chairs that activate when sat on so you know how much time you actually spend at your desk doing work every day/week vs. time spent in meetings

Idea #9: Machine learning calendar app that tracks when meetings are scheduled to start vs. when they actually start so that it can predict when future meetings will start. It sucks being the person that’s always on time for things that don’t start on time.

Idea #10: A campground that can simulate rain pitter-pattering against your tent all night because the sounds of rain in nature are so nice and peaceful, and it really is the best way to fall asleep

Idea #11: Speech preparation software that listens to you rehearse your speech or presentation and keeps track of how many times you’ve practiced each part of it. You keep practicing until you’ve hit every word at least X times.

Idea #12: Vehicles that travel at a speed that’s proportional to the number of passengers they contain. You can drive by yourself, but your speed will be slow, or you can carpool and travel faster. People who value their time will travel with others.

Idea #13: Cameras on cars that use computer vision to warn drivers when they’re about to park in an illegal parking spot, like if there’s a fire hydrant nearby or something

Idea #14: A trash service that takes away the entire trash can full of trash and replaces it with an empty clean trash can. This way people can throw trash directly into the bin without having to use plastic bags which are bad for the environment.

Idea #15: A urinal that analyzes your pee and lets you know how hydrated you currently are

Idea #16: Glasses that send the text you’re currently looking at to an app that reads the text to you out loud. Turn any book, newspaper, or magazine into an audiobook.

Idea #17: A website that lists current apartment prices as well as the average rent that tenants pay during year 2, 3, 4, etc. that they live there. Some places raise rent significantly after year 1, and that info would be good to know before moving in.

Idea #18: A service for rich people where they can buy bookshelves that are pre-filled with novels, cookbooks, art books, and knick-knacks that are aesthetically pleasing and also make them look like interesting and well-rounded individuals

Idea #19: A Soul Cycle style gym that uses stationary bikes for workouts, but the bikes also generate electricity for families in need. Seems like good motivation to show up and sweat. No energy gets generated for the people who need it without butts on bikes doing work.

Idea #20: A mechanical wall inside of climbing gyms that can move and contort to reshape itself to resemble specific pitches from real outdoor climbing routes