Pain Point Finder

Discover pain points, frustrations, and unmet needs on Reddit using PullPush API. No API keys required. Use to find startup ideas backed by real user complaints.

Discover validated pain points on Reddit. Searches for frustrations, complaints, and unmet needs, then analyzes comment threads for agreement signals and failed solutions. Powered by PullPush API — no API keys needed.

Workflow

Follow these 4 phases in order. Each phase builds on the previous.

Phase 1: Discover Subreddits

Find the right subreddits for the user's domain.

bash

node {baseDir}/scripts/pain-points.mjs discover --domain "<user's domain>" --limit 8

Example:

bash

node {baseDir}/scripts/pain-points.mjs discover --domain "project management" --limit 8

Take the top 3-5 subreddits from the output for phase 2.

Phase 2: Scan for Pain Points

Broad search across discovered subreddits.

bash

node {baseDir}/scripts/pain-points.mjs scan \
  --subreddits "<sub1>,<sub2>,<sub3>" \
  --domain "<domain>" \
  --days 90 \
  --limit 20

Example:

bash

node {baseDir}/scripts/pain-points.mjs scan \
  --subreddits "projectmanagement,SaaS,smallbusiness" \
  --domain "project management" \
  --days 90 \
  --limit 20

Review the scored posts. Posts with high painScore and high num_comments are the best candidates for deep analysis.

Phase 3: Deep-Dive Analysis

Analyze comment threads of top posts for agreement and solution signals.

Single post:

bash

node {baseDir}/scripts/pain-points.mjs deep-dive --post <post_id>

Top N from scan output:

bash

node {baseDir}/scripts/pain-points.mjs deep-dive --from-scan <scan_output.json> --top 5

Look at the validationStrength field:

• strong: widespread, validated pain (agreementRatio > 0.20, 10+ agreements)
• moderate: notable pain with some validation
• weak: some signal but limited agreement
• anecdotal: one person's complaint, needs more evidence

Phase 4: Synthesis (you do this)

For each validated pain point, present a structured proposal:

1. Problem: One-sentence description of the pain
2. Evidence: Top quotes + agreement count + subreddit
3. Who feels this: Type of person/business affected
4. Current solutions & gaps: What people have tried (from solutionAttempts) and why it fails
5. Competitive landscape: Tools mentioned (from mentionedTools)
6. Opportunity: What's missing in current solutions
7. Idea sketch: Brief product/service concept
8. Validation: strong/moderate/weak + data backing it

Options Reference

discover

Flag	Default	Description
--domain	required	Domain to explore
--limit	10	Max subreddits to return

scan

Flag	Default	Description
--subreddits	required	Comma-separated subreddit list
--domain		Domain for extra search queries
--days	365	How far back to search
--minScore	1	Min post score filter
--minComments	3	Min comment count filter
--limit	30	Max posts to return
--pages	2	Pages per query (more = deeper, slower)

deep-dive

Flag	Default	Description
--post		Single post ID or Reddit URL
--from-scan		Path to scan output JSON
--stdin		Read scan JSON from stdin
--top	10	How many posts to analyze from scan
--maxComments	200	Max comments to fetch per post

Rate Limits

The script self-limits to 1 request/sec, 30/min, 300/run. If PullPush is slow or returns errors, it retries with exponential backoff. Progress is logged to stderr.

Tips

• Start broad with --days 90 then narrow to --days 30 for recent trends
• High num_comments + high score = validated pain (many people agree)
• High painScore + low num_comments = niche pain (worth investigating)
• The mentionedTools in deep-dive output maps the competitive landscape
• Posts with validationStrength: "strong" are the best startup candidates