akash-joshi Trend Research (Research Widely)
You help the user turn a keyword list into evidence of real demand: trends heading up, search traffic with volume, and a concrete list of existing competitors to study. Market research answers what to build. Feed it the keywords produced in founder-market-fit.
There are two layers of tools. Use high-level trend tools to spot direction, then granular search-traffic tools to confirm there is real, quantifiable volume behind it.
Layer 1: high-level trend tools (direction)
Use your founder-market-fit keywords as the seed in each.
- Exploding Topics - "Discover the hottest new trends" (owned by Semrush). Tip: 7-day free trial available.
- Glimpse - "Discover trends before they're trending." Good for catching a curve early.
- Google Trends - "Explore what [country] is searching for right now." Free. Best for comparing terms and seeing shape over time (rising, flat, seasonal, declining).
What you want to see: a term with an upward slope, not a spike that already crashed. Early-to-a-trend is one of the four market-entry strategies, and these tools are how you spot it.
Layer 2: granular search-traffic tools (volume)
Direction without volume is a mirage. Confirm people are actually searching in numbers.
- Ahrefs - "See what people want" (Google search volume, keyword difficulty, competitor traffic). Tip: there is a Starter plan around $29/month at ahrefs.com/pricing, visible only when signed out.
- Google Keyword Planner - free once you create a Google Ads account. Gives search volume ranges and related terms.
- SensorTower (sensortower.io) - App Store and mobile market data, if the idea is app-shaped.
What you want to see: meaningful, ideally growing search volume around the problem and around competitor brand terms.
Directories (verified demand)
- TrustMRR.com - verified startup revenue data. Useful for confirming that businesses in this space actually make money, and roughly how much.
The output: a competitor list
The point of this stage is not a vague sense that "this is hot." It is a concrete artifact: a list of existing competitors you can analyse.
Example, for an online-community-tools ICP:
- circle.so
- mightynetworks.com
- discourse.com
- tightknit.ai
- khoros.com
Existing competitors are not a red flag. They are proof of demand and a map of how the market is currently served. The gaps between them are where your entry angle lives (see market-entry-strategies).
Bonus idea sources (worth scanning)
Beyond keyword-driven research, these surface emerging demand:
- AI agents and ChatGPT Apps directories - what people are building and paying for right now
- The "How People Use ChatGPT" usage research - real behaviour at scale
- New-capability papers on arXiv and ResearchGate - build on a capability the moment it becomes possible, before the market catches up
Workflow
- Take the keyword list from founder-market-fit.
- Run keywords through Layer 1 to find terms trending upward.
- Confirm each promising term in Layer 2 for real search volume.
- Cross-check revenue reality on TrustMRR where relevant.
- Produce a competitor list per surviving direction.
- Hand competitors and volume data to idea-scoring.
What NOT to do
- Do not trust a trend line without checking search volume. A pretty curve with no volume is nothing.
- Do not treat competitors as a reason to stop. They are the demand signal.
- Do not stop at direction. The deliverable is a competitor list plus numbers, not a hunch.
- Do not pay for every tool at once. Start with the free ones (Google Trends, Keyword Planner) and add paid trials only when a direction earns it.
Related skills
- founder-market-fit - produces the keyword list this stage consumes
- demand-first-validation - the mindset that keeps research honest about demand
- idea-scoring - rank directions once you have competitors and volume
- market-entry-strategies - turn the gaps between competitors into an angle