For founders who already climbed one mountain

The next thing you build doesn't have to be for the exit.

Fifty real problems. Each one small enough for one operator to run, and big enough to matter.

You know how to spot a problem and go solve it. That skill doesn't have to retire when you do.

The quiet part of an exit

The company was the identity. When it's gone, the money doesn't fill the space. A bigger house doesn't either, and neither does starting company number two just to feel useful again.

What you actually have

The thing you're good at is finding something broken, being resourceful with limited capital, and executing until it works. Most real-world problems are starving for exactly that.

The next chapter

Not writing a check and walking away. Picking one problem below and running the solution the way you ran your last company — hands on, with real metrics.

problems researched, each with real numbers

domains, from rural health to the restoration economy

$100K–$2M

the range to launch a first version of most of them

—

have a paying customer waiting on day one

Opportunities by domain

How ready each one is to run

Ready to launch. A payer already exists — a Medicaid broker, a hospital, a county contract. Sign one customer in 90 days and go.

Needs an anchor first. Real, but "build it and they'll come" fails here. Lock a committed buyer or volume before you spend.

Enter as a niche. The whole problem is utility- or billions-scale. Win the contract or service slice inside it, not the whole thing.

The index

Every entry is a short deal memo: how big the problem is, why the market left it alone, what it costs to start, who's already in it, where the money comes from, and where to begin. Tap any row.

How to read a memo

THE STAT

The number is the pitch

Each entry leads with one hard figure from government, academic, or industry sources. If the number doesn't move you, skip it. Founders don't fake conviction.

THE MONEY

Follow the recurring payer

The strongest opportunities have a check already flowing — Medicaid, an IIJA program, a USDA grant, a county contract. That's what turns a cause into a business that lasts.

THE GATE

Licensure, not capital, sets the clock

In health and environment especially, the pacing item is a license or a bond, not money. Read the "first 90 days" line as the real starting move.

Pick one. Go run it.

You don't need all fifty. You need the one you can't stop thinking about — and the same stubbornness that built the last thing.

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