Step 1 - Market Research in 2 Searches

Exploring my first SaaS Startup Idea

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2 min read

You've got your idea or, rather, a pain point, an ick.

What's next?

Ultimately, you will need to get out of your tiny student apartment and talk to the people you think will use and benefit from your app. To figure out whose problems you are trying to solve and what questions to ask when you talk to them, you must learn about your market.


Market Research

Here my goal was to learn about major players in my target industry. For example, I wanted to learn more about the fitness industry.

I learned that many different sub-industries existed within the overarching fitness industry. By breaking up the larger fitness industry into smaller segments, I could clearly see understand the difference between the value they provide their customers and the problems they face.

Below is a list of some sub-markets and a few major players in those markets.

On-Demand

  • Les Mills
  • Peloton

Brick and Mortar Gyms

  • Anytime Fitness
  • Planet Fitness
  • Golds Gym

Boutique Gyms

  • OrangeTheory
  • Burn Boot Camp

Wearables

  • Whoop
  • Apple Watch
  • Garmin

Market research helps you identify areas of growth in these markets (at home fitness due to COVID-19). Market research should also highlight the pain points your target markets face (retaining members).

To conduct this market research and identify various submarkets, I entered the following into my favorite search engine: 'x' industry market research report

Then, I read a few summaries of larger research reports that wanted me to pay a few hundreds buck for full access. Since we are just trying to get an overview of the market, this summary data should suffice.

Next, I searched: 'x' industry map

This populated a few images with popular brand news in the industry. This is a quick and dirty way to find names of major players within the industry.


Ultimately, market research is one of the first steps to learn more formally about an industry of interest. This research is critical for preparing for customer interviews and understanding the context within which your interviewees operate.