The Startup Ideas Podcast
How I use Pinterest and Google Trends to find startup ideas
Fri, 23 Aug 2024
In this episode, we dive deep into uncovering validated startup ideas by leveraging anti-trends on Pinterest and Google Trends. I'll walk you through my workflow, showing you exactly how to use these tools to spot emerging trends, identify key problems and solutions, and find creators and websites thriving in these niches. If you're looking for a fresh approach to finding your next big startup idea, this episode is packed with actionable insights you won't want to miss!1) What are anti-trends and how to spot them• Anti-trends = opposite of what's hot right now• Example: "AI-free" products when EVERYONE is jumping on the AI bandwagon• Why it works: Creates a unique moat + appeals to overlooked market segments• How to spot anti-trends: Real-world observations, Social media chatter, Consumer studies (e.g. recent study shows AI mentions LOWER purchase intent)• Pro tip: Always be on the lookout for what's NOT being talked about2) Tool: Pinterest deep dive:• Shows monthly/weekly changes• Reveals related trends• Displays popular pins• Example: "Slow living" trend analysis gives insights into minimalism, cozy bedrooms, etc.3) Tool: Google Trends + Glimpse hack:• 5-year view of trend growth• Related trends• Social platform activity• Topic maps• Pro tip: Look for steady, sustainable growth rather than spikes4) Competitive research workflow:1. Use Claude AI to list top creators/websites in your niche2. Analyze their traffic/backlinks with Ahrefs3. Check creator growth on ViewStats5) Key questions to ask:• What products/services can I create for this anti-trend?• Where's the audience hanging out?• Any low-hanging fruit in terms of SEO?• Which geographic markets are underserved?6) Remember: Anti-trends are about serving overlooked markets• There's often less competition and more passionate audiences in these niches• Don't be afraid to go against the grain!Want more free ideas? I collect the best ideas from the pod and give them to you for free in a database. Most of them cost $0 to start (my fav)Get access: https://www.gregisenberg.com/30startupideas🚀 My FREE 5 day email course to learn how to build a business of the future using the ACP funnel:https://www.communityempire.co/free-course🎯 To build your own portfolio businesses powered by community you might enjoy my membership.You'll get my full course with all my secrets on building businesses, peer-groups to keep you accountable, business ideas every single month and more!Spots are limited.https://www.communityempire.co/📬 Join my free newsletter to get weekly startup insights for free:https://www.gregisenberg.com/70,000+ people are already subscribed.FIND ME ON SOCIALX/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenbergInstagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/How I use Reddit and AI to find winning startup ideas: https://youtu.be/8vXoI7lUroQEpisode Timestamps: 00:00 Intro00:59 What are anti-trends and how to spot them03:12 Tool 1: Pinterest07:40 Tool 2: Google Trends 08:52 Tool 3: Glimpse13:07 Tool 4: Claude AI finding top creators/websites15:23 Tool 5: Ahrefs for analyzing traffic/backlinks 17:28 Tool 6: ViewStats checking creator growth
What's up, everyone? Good to have you back. Today, I really want to talk about something that's been on my brain for a long, long time. It's this idea of anti-trends. You know, we talk a lot about trends and building startups for those trends, but I don't think enough is talked about about anti-trends.
And today I'm going to talk about how you can come up with startup ideas based on those anti-trends, how to identify anti-trends, some of the tools I use, and just kind of bring you in inside my workflow, because why not? So let's talk about why I care about anti-trends in the beginning. So in software, in startups, it's a very competitive place and everyone goes for those trends.
And what I've noticed, it's actually quite easier to go to those anti-trends. Now, what am I talking about? What is an anti-trend? If everyone is talking about AI, AI-free AI, might be a great way to position your startup. There might be so much demand for AI-free that, yes, there's billions of dollars going into building startups that are AI.
And you see every agency website saying AI and every SaaS website saying AI. What if you didn't? What if you said AI-free? And these are the little things. When you identify an anti-trend like that and you're first, it's a really good moat. So the question is, how do you come up with anti-trends? Well, number one, you go out there in the real world and it comes to you. You just see it.
Now, in the example of the AI-free thing, I actually saw, I'm going to share my screen. Sorry, folks who are audio only. I actually saw and I tweeted this I saw that there was this study that said AI is a turnoff for consumers.
So a new study suggests artificial intelligence and product descriptions lowers purchase intent with implications not only for brands integrating AI, but of the wider category challenges of the technology faces, it has become widespread. Point is, if you don't use AI on your website, especially in, I think, B2C, I think good things might happen for you. So how do we identify?
Let's talk about some of the tools that I use when I want to identify a trend or an anti-trend. And some of these, by the way, are so underrated. So listen or watch to the end so you understand all of them. One is Pinterest. Here I'm on Pinterest. This is actually Pinterest Canada.
One of the things I definitely, just because I signed up when I was in Canada, one of the things that you see here is a bunch of trends. So these are some trends in Canada, fall outfits, weekly change of 30%, monthly change of 400%. Back to school, obviously, dress to impress, home gardening, color book nails. Okay, interesting. Main character mode has a 10,000 plus monthly change.
Sun-soaked spaces, 10,000 plus. When you start seeing these 10,000 plus, these are things that are getting real big. So one way to come up with ideas for anti-trends is just to look at what is trending on platforms like Pinterest. And... do the opposite of it. And I see that BRAT is trending a little bit here. But even BRAT, they talk about BRAT summer and now it's demure fall.
That's the anti-trend to BRAT, right? There's always an anti-trend. So let's just say, I've been thinking about this trend for around slow living. Now, what is slow living? Slow living, I just noticed that there's a lot of talk around hustle culture, working all the time, dead lifting, cold plunge, wake up at five in the morning, don't stop work until 10 p.m., that sort of thing.
It's kind of the opposite of my vibe, actually. So I think that slow living is going to be a more and more important trend. So I'll use a tool like Pinterest Trends to go and see like, okay, where am I going? Is it going down? Is it going up? The one bad thing about Pinterest Trends is that it does only go to one year.
But what I like about it is it tells me related trends, so minimalist living rooms. So now it gives me ideas, right? So I start with my anti-trend and now it gives me ideas around what are the products that I could actually be building here. So maybe there's an opportunity to create like the slow living interior design agency. Cozy, and you see, you know, cozy bedroom.
You see, these are terms that are coming up. And then it allows me to go check through popular pins. So I can open up a pin here that's popular. So let's just say this one. Living slow, learn to do nothing, put down your phone, accept rest, drink water, go on a walk, social media cleanse, learn to say no, smile, be still, connect to their community. All this stuff.
And what it allows me to do then is now I'm learning about what is resonating with this audience. I'm learning about what are the philosophies and principles of this particular community and in this particular anti-trend. And it gives me ideas. And then I just... take out my notebook and I start writing down what am I observing?
You create a little page, take out a pen, you take a little page and you say observations and what am I observing about this anti-trend? I'm observing that putting down your phone is a big part of it or resting is a big part of it. And then I ask myself, what are products and services that I can go and create so that I can monetize and build a community in that space.
Don't tell anyone, but I've got 30 plus startup ideas that could make you millions. And I'm giving them away for free. These aren't just random guesses. They're validated concepts from entrepreneurs who've built $100 million plus businesses. I've compiled them into one simple database. Compiled from hundreds of conversations I've had on my podcast.
But the main thing is most of these ideas don't need a single investor. Some cost nothing to start. I'm pretty much handing you a cheat sheet. The Idea Bank is your startup shortcut. Just click below to get access. Your next cash-flowing business is waiting for you. So that's Pinterest. There's also, of course, Google Trends. that you can use, which is similar. So let's go put slow living.
And you can see over the last five years, this is worldwide, it's progressively going up. This is beautiful to see. I look at this and I'm like, there is certainly some opportunity to be building in this space. This is a trend I like to see. It's not like crazy growth. And I actually almost like that better because to me, this is a sustainable growth.
Then you can see what people also search, which I find really interesting. But I always check the questions. To me, the questions is the most important place to start. What is slow living? How to practice slow living? What is the art of slow living? This basically puts you in the mind of people in this anti-trend. So Google Trends, you know, it's completely free to use.
I don't know why more people don't use it. I forgot to say. So I actually added this Chrome extension. I have no affiliation with them at all. But it's this Chrome extension called Glimpse. Discover trends before they're trending. And it just maps on. It basically just supercharges Google Trends. So it also adds things like related trends, which is super good to know.
So I can go and see all the related trends and Glimpse gives me that. I think it's free to use and I haven't paid for it or anything like that. And that's really, really helpful, obviously, to know related trends because then you go back to your You go back to your notebook and you start writing, what are the related trends and why? You start asking yourself, why are these related trends?
Why do we think food sustainability is in there? Sustainable business, euphoria party. What do these things mean? And it puts you down that rabbit hole. The other interesting thing about Glimpse plus Google Trends is it gives you, where are people, where's the most activity on social media? Is it on Twitter? Is it on Instagram? You can see here it's very much on Instagram.
So when I decide I want to create a social account to build an audience here, because you know me, I always like to start with the audience. Yes, it's nice to be on Instagram because that's where the people are, but maybe I go on Twitter. Maybe I go on Twitter because the competition isn't there and there's an opportunity to do that. I have a friend who is a coach.
health coach and she was on Instagram and she's like where else should I be and I was like you know go to LinkedIn go to LinkedIn because you know health coach for busy entrepreneurs her niche no one's you know no one's talking about health stuff on or not a lot of people are talking about health stuff on on LinkedIn and she's built like a huge a huge audience on there so it's and and you know when there's not a lot of competition there's uh
it's worth peeking in. And then you can see the topic map. So you can see like self-care, green living, journaling. I just find this to be a helpful way to just see what is going on in a bird's eye view. And then these are the Google Trends related topics and related queries. So you can see like just what are some breakout topics, slow living with a princess,
You can just start scrolling through them, having fun. Spend 30 minutes here. Spend 30 minutes and start observing and writing down. Another way to obviously discover trending topics, so you'll find things that are trending and look for anti-trends, is if you do download Glimpse, you can go to the Discover Trends tab. You can go to discover trends tab.
You can click into things, home improvement, let's say. And it takes a few seconds, but it'll pull up like what are the different graphs and what's starting to go up? What's the search volume? So you can see like AC cleaning, high income business. And then from that, again, you have to come up with ideas around what can I be building here?
And I've talked about how I use gummy search in a previous video, a previous YouTube video, how to do that. And I think I might create a video and a pod around how to validate some of these ideas if enough people are into that. Comment on the YouTube if you want me to create a video around that or pod about it.
But coming up with ideas are on places like on gummy search or just asking yourself, okay, what do these people need? So Glimpse slash Google Trends is something that is very, very helpful. Another thing that I do is I'll go to a platform like Cloud. And by the way, in a previous video, everyone made fun of me that I call Cloud instead of Cloud. But I speak French.
You know, think about Jean-Claude Van Damme. You know, I wouldn't call it Jean-Claude Van Damme. That's how you say it in French. So I'm sorry. I'm going to keep calling it Claude. I might be wrong in English, but that's how you say it in French. So then I go to Claude and I'll say... I want to build a business in slow living.
Give me a list of the top creators in slow, sustainable living and top websites I can go show. I can go check out for some competitive research. And now I generally like to really define what it is. Slow living is the antithesis of hustle culture. Then give me 10 of each. Let's see what they come up with. So then I've got the list of the top creators in slow sustainable living.
And then I'll just go and check them out. And then the top websites. So this, like add this to your document, add this to, you know, and some people don't like writing down, that's fine. Put it into a notes file, like literally a notes file. You don't have to use anything fancy. The reason I like writing or using just a notes file is not using something fancy. Just, you know, go with what you got.
And then you can take some of these websites. Let's see what slow.co is. I haven't checked this out. Okay, so it's a newsletter for slow living. And then you can go and look. Okay, there's something called theminimalist.com. There's something called slowyourhome.com. And then once I've done that,
I'll take one of these, uh, take one of these websites and I'll go to a Ahrefs and I'll put it in, see what's happening, how many backlinks, what are the trends, what sort of traffic, like, you know, how are they doing? Um, And then I'll just start literally playing around with what are the opportunities, any low-hanging fruits in terms of SEO, backlinks.
I'm always interested to see how many backlinks do they have. What are their top pages? Top pages are interesting because it signifies, okay, what do people actually care about on these websites? That gives you intel into what to do. The organic competition is really interesting.
So just play around with Ahrefs and just see how competitive these anti-trend ideas are because that'll give you confidence around what to do, where the opportunities lie. So I would definitely do that. You can also go to the keyword explorer and just see how difficult certain terms are. And then I also love looking at the questions, you know, me on the questions part, like what is slow living?
And this just is, it's, it's, it's interesting to see. Interesting to see where are people clicking in from. Like randomly Indonesia, for example, is like the top search volume. So it's like, that's really interesting. What about Indonesian culture lends itself well to slow living? And then how hard is it to rank in Indonesia? And do I want to rank in Indonesia?
Or do I just want to rank in the United States? So these are the type of questions that you get to ask yourself. It's amazing when you're playing with some of these tools. Another tool that I use. So once you have the list of the creators, you can use a tool like view stats, which is Mr. Beast's tool. They also have a Chrome extension and you can actually plug in.
So let's just say be more with less. Let's see. Okay. Does this person, are they trending up? Like, are they trending down? Are people listening? You know, let's, let's go, let's go see. So pretty small, 11,300, like a lot smaller than I thought. Like not doing much. So I look at this and I'm kind of like, there's not much competition here at all. Let's go check. How about this guy, Joshua Becker?
And by the way, I'm doing this just so you can like jump in my brain how I think about things. Like I feel like a lot of you have asked like, How do I live cook, basically? So I'm going to do more live cooking podcasts and YouTube videos. So this guy is crushing it. He's definitely adding subscribers. He's making thousands of dollars a month. Things I look for is how many videos he's doing.
I also love to look at long views versus short views. I basically don't even... acknowledge short views anymore. It's all about long views in terms of affinity. So if there's a lot of long views, it means that there's a lot of trust here. I have to look at what videos he's doing too, right? This might not be all slow living. Look, it's like some stuff about just tidying stuff and decluttering.
But there's also stuff like 10 reasons to escape excessive consumerism. So there's definitely a part of it that's slow living and a part of it that's just like minimalism. So there you have it. I gave you my secrets. I told you exactly how I find anti-trends, which are kind of like the trends you should really be paying attention to. And I hope you liked it.
And if you did, like, comment, and subscribe just so more of this stuff is in your feed. It's the least you can do. You want your feed to be dialed. If you want more of me in your feed, you got to go and do that. And it also just lets me know that I should be creating more videos like this. I did a video on how I find startup ideas with AI.
And if you haven't checked that out already, go and check that out. And if you want me to do a video and pod episode on how I validate startup ideas, let me know and I'll do it for you. I'm here for you. This is what these are about. Lifting the veil, giving you startup ideas. And it's more fun when more people are building.
let's let's go get him all right hope hope this got your creative juices flowing I know it did mine thanks for listening and I'll see you next time later