👋 Hi and welcome to today’s edition of Venture Radar — where we uncover real businesses making real money, and break down how they do it.
Most people get stuck at the first step: picking the niche. They either go too broad (“marketing for small businesses”) or too trendy and miss the real money, which sits quietly in boring, underserved, high-need corners of the internet.
If you want to build a profitable online boring business, you need to look for niches that aren’t sexy but are essential.
Think: compliance training, software documentation, back-office workflows, equipment repair info, or hyper-specific B2B content.
Here’s a simple framework to help you find your niche:
1. Find "high pain, low glamor" industries
Ask yourself: what industries have annoying, recurring problems but get zero attention on Twitter or YouTube?
Look for sectors where:
Mistakes are expensive
Professionals need ongoing support or info
Digital resources are outdated or hard to use
There’s mandatory training or documentation
Examples:
Safety training for construction workers
Continuing education for dental hygienists
SOP templates for freight brokers
Online documentation tools for medical device reps
Software training for 10+ year old ERP systems
These aren’t ideas that make your friends jealous. They’re ideas that quietly pay the bills.
2. Narrow it down using this 3-part filter
Once you find a rough idea, run it through this filter:
Is the buyer desperate? Are they losing time, money, or compliance points without this? Urgency matters more than interest.
Is the market ignored? Are there fewer than 10 serious players online? If you see only old WordPress sites and outdated PDFs — that’s your green light.
Can it be sold online? Courses, templates, audits, membership sites, or SaaS. If you can deliver value digitally, you can scale without complexity.
3. Research forums, not Google Trends
Use Google less for trends and more for trench work. Search phrases like:
“Anyone here doing [niche]?” on Reddit
“Biggest pain in [industry]?” on Quora
“[job title] Slack community” or “[role] Facebook group”
Lurk where these people vent. Look for spreadsheets being passed around. Look for checklists or word docs shared in comment sections. Every clunky workaround is a business idea waiting to be productized.
4. Prototype a solution manually
Before building anything:
Offer a PDF guide, a Notion template, or a 1:1 consult call
Post it in a niche community with 100–500 relevant people
Ask: “Would anyone pay $49 for a toolkit to fix [x]?”
Make it ugly but clear. If 5 strangers pay, you're onto something. Most boring digital businesses start like this solving one real problem for one specific group.
5. Examples of boring niches making real money
These are real online businesses with niche focus and solid revenue:
EngineerInTrainingExam – sells practice exams for engineers ($20–100 per test)
ComplianceLine – digital whistleblower hotline for companies (B2B, recurring)
D4Dispatching – training courses and templates for new freight dispatchers
DogBizSuccess – coaching for dog trainers on how to run their business
JanitorialManager – software + training for cleaning business owners
None of these are exciting to the average person. That’s what makes them valuable. Fewer builders = more opportunity.
The biggest mistake founders make is looking for inspiration on startup blogs instead of in industry messes. The money isn’t in disruption. It’s in understanding boring workflows deeply and making them easier, faster, or more compliant.
Your unfair advantage is not hype. It’s your willingness to go 2 layers deeper into a niche most people would scroll past.
The less people want to build in it, the more money there usually is.
Thanks for reading today’s newsletter. Stay tuned for more!