---
source_url: "https://apify.com/bohard/hacker-news-idea-finder"
title: "Hacker News Idea Finder — find startup ideas & pain points · Apify"
mirrored_at: 2026-08-25T01:02:35.421Z
host: apify.com
cited_in_42a: true
mirror_canonical: "https://index.42a.ai/apify.com/bohard/hacker-news-idea-finder"
---

> **Original source:** https://apify.com/bohard/hacker-news-idea-finder

Find **validated startup ideas and customer pain points** on Hacker News in seconds. Give it a topic — get back the posts and comments where real people complain, get frustrated, and ask "is there a tool that…".

Perfect for **indie hackers, SaaS founders, marketers and product teams** doing market research and idea validation.

## What it does

For each topic you provide, the actor:

1.  Searches Hacker News (stories, Ask HN, Show HN and/or comments) via the official HN Algolia API.
2.  Scans each item's title and text for **pain signals** — frustration, complaints, and requests for tools/alternatives.
3.  Scores every item by how many pain signals it contains and returns the strongest ones, with a direct HN link.

## Input

Field

Type

Default

Description

`queries`

array

—

Topics / keywords to search. Required.

`tags`

array

\["story"\]

Content types: story, ask\_hn, show\_hn, comment.

`maxItemsPerQuery`

integer

100

Items to scan per query.

`sort`

string

relevance

relevance or new.

`time`

string

all

all / year / month / week / day.

`minPoints`

integer

0

Minimum HN points (0 = no filter).

`minPainScore`

integer

1

Minimum number of pain signals to include an item.

### Example input

```
{  "queries": ["project management", "time tracking"],  "tags": ["story", "ask_hn"],  "maxItemsPerQuery": 100,  "sort": "relevance",  "time": "year",  "minPoints": 5,  "minPainScore": 1}
```

## Output

Each dataset item:

```
{  "query": "project management",  "painScore": 3,  "matchedSignals": ["frustration", "has a problem with something", "looking for a tool"],  "type": "Ask HN",  "title": "Ask HN: Why is project management software so frustrating?",  "snippet": "I've tried everything and I'm looking for a tool that just works…",  "hnUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12345678",  "externalUrl": null,  "author": "someuser",  "points": 142,  "numComments": 87,  "createdAt": "2026-01-12T08:30:00.000Z"}
```

Sort by `painScore` to find the strongest, most actionable complaints.

## Notes & limits

-   Uses the public Hacker News (Algolia) search API — no login or API key required.
-   Pain detection is heuristic (pattern-based), tuned for precision over recall.
-   Great companion to building products: validate that a problem is real before you code it.