---
name: sales-startupideasai
description: "Startup Ideas AI (startupideasai.com) platform help — a community-driven directory of ~140,000 browsable AI-generated startup ideas you filter by industry, tag, and country, upvote, and submit your own startup to, plus a companion generator/validator app (startupideasai.info): an AI Idea Generator (\"Mac\") from your skills and a category, a Validation Dashboard (market, competitor, audience-demand, revenue estimates), and a Roadmap Planner. Free tier with lifetime caps, a low-cost Premium plan, and a lifetime Custom plan; UI-only, NO public API/webhooks/Zapier/MCP. Use when browsing the directory to find a niche to build, generating ideas from your background, interpreting its validation or market scores, understanding free vs Premium limits, submitting a startup, or asking whether it has an API to export ideas. Do NOT use for the tool-agnostic validate-before-building method or comparing idea tools across the market (use /sales-idea-validation), or building the smoke-test landing page (use /sales-funnel)."
argument-hint: "[describe what you need help with in Startup Ideas AI]"
license: MIT
version: 1.0.0
tags: [sales, validation, pre-launch, platform]
---

# Startup Ideas AI Platform Help

Startup Ideas AI (**startupideasai.com**) is a **community-driven catalog of AI-generated startup
ideas**: a browsable directory of ~140,000 ideas you filter by industry, tag, and country, **upvote**,
and **submit your own startup** to, for indie hackers, makers, vibe coders, and first-time founders
hunting for something to build. A **companion generator/validator app** at **startupideasai.info**
("AIStartupIdeas") adds an **AI Idea Generator** (an assistant called "Mac" that turns your skills +
a chosen category into personalized ideas), a **Validation Dashboard** (market/competitor/audience-demand/
revenue estimates), and a **Roadmap Planner** (step-by-step launch milestones). It's an idea-*discovery
+ light-validation* tool, **not** a demand test — a browsed or AI-generated idea and any score are AI
estimates, not proof anyone will pay. **UI-only: no public API, webhooks, Zapier/Make, or MCP.**

## Step 1 — Gather context

If `references/learnings.md` exists, read it first for accumulated platform knowledge.

Ask only what you can't infer:

1. **Which part of Startup Ideas AI?**
   - A) **Browse the directory** (startupideasai.com) to find a niche / idea worth building
   - B) **Generate ideas** from your skills/background (the "Mac" generator on startupideasai.info)
   - C) **Interpret a validation / market score** from the Validation Dashboard
   - D) **Submit your own startup** to the listing (community directory)
   - E) Get the ideas out / automate them (export / API reality)
   - F) Pricing — free-tier limits vs Premium vs the lifetime Custom plan
2. **What's the real question — "what should I build / is this idea worth building?" or "how do I use
   this tool?"** If it's the go/no-go decision, that's `/sales-idea-validation` (browsing a catalog or
   reading an AI validation score is not demand) — route in Step 2.

Skip-ahead: if the user wants the validate-before-building *method* or to compare idea tools across the
market, that's a `/sales-idea-validation` question — route immediately.

## Step 2 — Route or answer directly

| If the user's question is about… | Route to |
|---|---|
| The validate-before-building **method**, or the go/no-go decision itself | `/sales-idea-validation {question}` |
| Comparing Startup Ideas AI against other catalogs/validators (IdeaBrowser, VentureVault, Ideagrape…) | `/sales-idea-validation {question}` |
| Deep **Reddit demand-signal** discovery / scoring as its own workflow | `/sales-trendseeker {question}` |
| Building the smoke-test / fake-door **landing page** to test real demand | `/sales-funnel {question}` |
| Growing a pre-launch **waitlist** / capturing real demand | `/sales-audience-growth {question}` |

When routing, give the exact command: "This is a {domain} question — run: `/sales-idea-validation {original question}`"

Otherwise, answer Startup Ideas AI-specific questions using Step 3.

## Step 3 — Startup Ideas AI platform reference

**Read `references/platform-guide.md`** for the full reference — the directory (filter/upvote/submit),
the startupideasai.info generator + Validation Dashboard + Roadmap Planner, the **Free / Premium /
Custom** plan gates and lifetime caps, the no-public-API automation reality, and the domain/namesake
disambiguation (startup**ideas**ai.com vs the different startup.ai builder and the "stratup.ai" generator).

Answer using only the relevant section — don't dump the full reference.

## Step 4 — Actionable guidance

- **Use it for discovery, not for the decision.** Its value is a huge browsable catalog plus a fast
  generator — use it to build a shortlist of candidate niches, then take the go/no-go from a real
  demand test (smoke test / pre-sale), not from browsing the directory or reading a validation score.
  Route the real test to `/sales-idea-validation`, and drive/capture signups via `/sales-funnel` and
  `/sales-audience-growth`.
- **Treat every score and market number as an AI estimate, not fact.** The Validation Dashboard's
  market size, competitor set, audience-demand, and revenue-potential figures are **AI-generated**, not
  audited — tell the user to read them as a directional lens and **verify any market/revenue number
  against a primary source** before acting. A high validation score is not demand; a browsed or
  AI-generated idea has been *suggested*, not *validated by a paying stranger*.
- **Name the catalog's quality tradeoff.** It's a **community-submitted, AI-generated directory** of
  ~140,000 ideas — breadth over curation, so expect duplicates, thin/low-signal entries, and uneven
  quality (contrast the smaller curated catalogs like IdeaBrowser). Treat upvotes as light social proof,
  not demand, and scan for existing competitors before trusting any "gap."
- **Present pricing as best-effort and point to the site.** Free is **lifetime-capped** (a handful of
  generations/validations ever, plus a small monthly bonus), **Premium** (low-cost monthly) raises the
  monthly caps and lets you validate your *own* ideas, and a **Custom lifetime** plan unlocks unlimited
  use. Prices/limits change — tell the user to confirm current tiers on startupideasai.info, and note
  the free tier is a trial-grade cap an iterating founder outgrows fast.
- **There's no public API — don't plan an integration around it.** If asked to export or automate, say
  plainly there's **no documented public API, no webhooks, no Zapier/Make, no MCP** — it's a UI web app,
  so the only ways out are manual copy (mind the site's terms) or **reconstructing the underlying signal
  from source** (the Reddit API, Google Trends, Product Hunt). **Whenever the user asks to export or
  automate the directory, reframe it: the thing worth building a pipeline around is a real demand signal
  (your own landing-page conversions / pre-sale checkouts), not a directory of AI-generated ideas.**
- **Get the name right.** startup**ideas**ai.com (directory) + startupideasai.info (generator app) are
  the product; **startup.ai** is a *different* AI app *builder* (`/sales-startup-ai`), and "stratup.ai"
  is yet another idea generator — disambiguate before answering.

If you discover a gotcha or tip not in `references/learnings.md`, append it there with today's date.

## Gotchas

*Best-effort from research (2026-07) — Startup Ideas AI is a young, low-review indie tool with a
JS-rendered site; verify catalog size, plan limits, and feature specifics on startupideasai.com / .info.*

- **A browsed or AI-generated idea is not validated demand.** The directory suggests ideas and the
  generator invents them; neither is proof anyone will pay. Follow with a real-behavior test (smoke
  test / pre-sale) — the go/no-go is a stranger taking an action.
- **The Validation Dashboard scores are AI estimates.** Market size, competitor set, audience-demand,
  and revenue potential are model-generated, not audited — verify any number against a primary source.
- **Breadth over curation.** ~140,000 community-submitted, AI-generated ideas means duplicates and
  thin entries; upvotes are light social proof, not demand. Scan for real competitors before trusting a "gap."
- **The free tier is lifetime-capped, not monthly.** Free gives only a handful of generations/
  validations *ever* (plus a tiny monthly bonus); real iteration needs Premium or the Custom lifetime plan.
- **No public API, no webhooks, no Zapier/Make/MCP.** UI web app only — you can't script or batch-export
  the ideas; reconstruct the signal from source (Reddit API, Google Trends, Product Hunt) if you need it.
- **Name/namesake confusion.** startup**ideas**ai.com (+ .info) is this tool; **startup.ai** is a
  different AI app builder (`/sales-startup-ai`) and "stratup.ai" is another generator — don't conflate them.

## Related skills

- `/sales-idea-validation` — The tool-agnostic validate-before-building method + the full validator/discovery landscape (use this to actually decide build-or-not; browsing a catalog or reading an AI score is not demand)
- `/sales-venturevault` — VentureVault platform help (a **free IdeaBrowser alternative** — a browsable vault of AI-scored, pre-researched startup ideas with opportunity scores; UI-only/no API — the closest "free browsable idea catalog" peer)
- `/sales-ideabrowser` — IdeaBrowser platform help (the **paid market-leader** idea-discovery catalog — curated, opportunity-scored ideas from Reddit/search/YouTube signals + a Research Agent on your own idea; UI-only/no API)
- `/sales-pickmyniche` — Pick My Niche platform help (a **free AI niche/idea generator** fed by live Reddit + Google Trends — an on-demand generator vs a browsable directory; UI-only/no API)
- `/sales-trendseeker` — Reddit-based demand discovery + evidence scoring (a real-signal sibling to a browsable idea directory)
- `/sales-funnel` — Build the smoke-test / fake-door landing page the real demand test runs on
- `/sales-audience-growth` — Grow a pre-launch waitlist and capture real demand
- `/sales-do` — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: `npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do -a claude-code`

## Examples

### Example 1: "I found an idea in the directory with lots of upvotes — should I build it?"
**User says**: "There's a highly-upvoted idea on Startup Ideas AI. Is that a signal I should build it?"
**Skill does**: Positions the directory as a **discovery** tool — the ~140,000 AI-generated, community-
submitted ideas are a shortlist source, and **upvotes are light social proof, not demand**. Explains the
Validation Dashboard scores are AI estimates to sanity-check (verify market/revenue numbers against a
primary source), then insists the go/no-go comes from a real demand test, routing the decision to
`/sales-idea-validation` and deeper Reddit signal to `/sales-trendseeker`.
**Result**: The founder treats the upvoted idea as a candidate to test, not a validated bet.

### Example 2: "Startup Ideas AI vs the paid IdeaBrowser / free VentureVault — which should I use?"
**User says**: "Is Startup Ideas AI good enough, or should I pay for IdeaBrowser?"
**Skill does**: Frames Startup Ideas AI as the **largest, community-driven, cheap** catalog (breadth +
a low-cost Premium tier + a lifetime Custom plan) whose tradeoff is **curation** — duplicates and thin
entries vs IdeaBrowser's smaller curated, opportunity-scored set or the free VentureVault. Recommends
using it for a broad shortlist, confirming plan limits on startupideasai.info, and — either way —
earning the real signal with a smoke test rather than trusting any catalog's scores.
**Result**: The user picks by curation-vs-breadth need and doesn't over-trust the scores.

### Example 3: Can I export Startup Ideas AI's ideas via an API? (developer/automation)
**User says**: "I want to pull Startup Ideas AI's directory into my own database via API."
**Skill does**: States plainly there's **no documented public API, no webhooks, and no Zapier/Make/MCP**
— it's a UI web app (startupideasai.com + the .info generator), so there's no supported way to export
programmatically. Suggests the fallbacks: manually copy the ideas you can see (respecting the site's
terms), or **reconstruct the underlying signal from source** (the Reddit API, Google Trends, Product
Hunt) — the same public signals AI idea generators read.
**Result**: The user avoids building on a non-existent API and picks a workable path to the signal.

## Troubleshooting

### The validation scores / every idea look promising
**Symptom**: The Validation Dashboard makes most ideas look good.
**Cause**: The scores and market analysis are **AI-generated estimates**, not audited data — they read
directional and can skew encouraging, and the catalog is AI-generated/community-submitted at scale.
**Solution**: Use the scores to *rank and shortlist*, not to decide. Verify any market/revenue number
against a primary source, scan for real competitors, then run a real demand test (smoke test / pre-sale)
via `/sales-idea-validation`.

### I ran out of free generations almost immediately
**Symptom**: The free tier stopped letting you generate or validate after a few tries.
**Cause**: The free tier's caps are **lifetime**, not monthly (only a handful of generations/validations
ever, plus a small monthly bonus) — an iterating founder outgrows it fast.
**Solution**: Upgrade to the low-cost monthly **Premium** (higher monthly caps + validate your own
ideas) or the **Custom lifetime** plan for unlimited use; confirm current limits on startupideasai.info.
Don't burn generations re-rolling — refine one idea per run.

### I want an API or a way to export/automate the ideas
**Symptom**: Want to script Startup Ideas AI or pull its directory into another system.
**Cause**: It has no documented public API, webhooks, or iPaaS connectors — it's a UI web app
(startupideasai.com + the .info generator).
**Solution**: Copy the visible ideas into your own store (mind the terms), or reconstruct the underlying
signal from source (Reddit API, Google Trends, Product Hunt). Automate a real demand signal (landing-page
analytics) instead. See `/sales-idea-validation`.