The Simplest Way to Think About Niche Scoring (AI SaaS)

Five candidate niches. Five criteria. Score one to ten on each. Sum. Pick the highest.

That is the entire system.

The Five Criteria

• Reachability — can you find this audience without paid ads?
• Pain frequency — daily, weekly, or monthly trigger?
• Existing spend — do they pay for adjacent tools today?
• Differentiation — specific mechanism, not slogan?
• Builder-fit — audience and trust, not just technical capability?

AI SaaS Specific

For AI SaaS, the trap is scoring builder-fit by "I can build the model."

Capability is binary. Score builder-fit by audience access and domain trust instead.

Just Run It

Fifteen minutes. The exercise is uncomfortable when the technically exciting niche scores fourth. That discomfort is the data.