How to Find Your Next Big Idea Hiding on the Internet

TL;DR: Today we’re releasing a new episode of our podcast How Do You Use ChatGPT? I go in depth with Steph Smith, a16z podcast host, online creator, and queen of internet rabbit holes. As we talk, we vet two business ideas live on the show using a suite of online tools and strategies. Watch on X or YouTube, or listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

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The next big idea is hiding in plain sight. It’s right here, scattered across the internet in incoherent fragments. Steph Smith, my guest for this episode, knows how to connect the dots.

Steph Smith is a prolific online creator, host of the a16Z podcast, author of a book about building a successful blog called Doing Content Right, and creator of Internet Pipes, a toolkit to surface useful insights on the internet. 

I sat down with Steph to explore the internet through her curious, data-driven eyes. You might think she has an uncanny knack for spotting trends online, but I discover that there’s a method to her approach. Steph also reveals the internet’s most underrated advantage: validating business ideas cheaply and quickly. Figuring out if an idea is worth it before going all-in is a huge unlock for creative minds everywhere. As we talk, I pitch Steph two businesses, and we use an arsenal of tools and strategies to vet them live on the show. 

This episode is a must-watch for anyone who spends time online and wants to make money on the internet. Here’s a taste:

• ChatGPT for idea generation. Steph leverages ChatGPT to brainstorm workable ideas around stuff she’s thinking about—she recently used an icebreaker it suggested at a meetup she was hosting. “[C]hatGPT is really good at helping me extrapolate from a base,” Steph says.
• Collecting information curated for you. ChatGPT helps Steph come up with new ideas and “fill”[s] them in with details by pulling information from different places to answer her queries. “[C]hatGPT questions are the ones where you're like, ‘I actually don't think this exists explicitly like this on Google,’” she says.
• Presenting information in a way that resonates. Steph not only collects, but also understands, information via ChatGPT. “[T]his program can take something very complex and usher it back down and also the other way ’round,” she says—like explaining dark matter in the voice of Spongebob.
• ChatGPT as a sparring partner. ChatGPT informs Steph’s opinions by showing her the “other side” of a debate—especially when “I have a strong opinion here, but I also have a feeling I don't know enough about this subject,” she explains. 
• Organize data with AI. Steph partners with ChatGPT to structure data in useful formats: She got GPT-4 to categorize and format a long list of words for her database of untranslatable words. Steph had to correct a few mistakes, but she explains that “instead of me doing it myself for six hours…I could get 90 percent plus there in 15 minutes. That’s much better.” 

In the next part of the interview, Steph helps me use the internet to validate a business idea I hold close to my heart (or, more accurately, my head)—making warm baseball caps. 

• Use Google to gauge demand. Steph’s first move is Googling the product and using an SEO tool to find metrics like the number of searches per month. Baked into Google searches are people’s “wants, needs, desires,” she explains, so while the raw search volume doesn’t determine if an idea is good or bad, it does help to get a sense of market size. 
• Analyze customer reviews. Another tactic Steph uses to gauge demand is scouring customer reviews of comparable products. She thinks two- and three-star reviews are “little pockets” of insight because they represent relatively balanced, practical opinions. 
• Pay attention to Google’s search suggestions. Steph dives deeper with a secondary keyword analysis, to check if people are searching for “synonym permutations” of warm baseball caps. Unfortunately, we come up empty. “[A]nytime Google is trying to take you in a different direction…that’s a pretty strong indicator,” she says.
• Use SEO tools! Steph is an advocate of plugins that surface insights as you browse. “[Keywords Everywhere] is great because it allows you to spot things passively, which…is one of the most underrated things that you can do on your internet journey,” she says. 

The second business idea we investigate is market demand for a D2C curry paste for a Thai noodle dish that I love called khao soi.

• Break down Google’s search results. When Steph Googles khao soi, she points out that most of the results are recipe pages. “Google tells you the intent of people searching it just by nature of what is on the page,” she says.