Aron here with ValidatorAI.com 

Before we start…
We’ve partnered with Base44, where you can bring your idea to life, for FREE, in seconds.

Click here 👉 Base44 👈 and copy/paste this prompt below to see what your idea looks like live: (fill in the parts in brackets with your idea details)

I am building [insert your startup idea here, briefly, one or two sentences], which helps [who is your target audience] solve the problem of [what is the problem in the market you are solving] by [how does your idea solve this problem]. My goal is to validate demand and collect emails from interested customers. Please create a landing page that clearly communicates this, includes a strong call-to-action, and allows users to sign up or express interest. Be sure to use a design and imagery that match my target market and be sure the main focus of the landing page is to capture signups so I can stay in touch with early customers.

THE STARTUP IDEA TERMINAL

Monday, November 24, 2025 | Monday Movers

The Bloomberg of Startups. Data and Analysis to help you spot trends.

Here’s what happened over the weekend.

📊 IDEA FUTURES INDEX

24HR MOVERS:

e-commerce ███░░░░░░░░░░+42%🔥

consulting ███░░░░░░░░░░+44%🔥

services ███░░░░░░░░░░+44%🔥

platforms ██████████░░░-22%❄️

e-commerce █░░░░░░░░░░░░+14%

VOLUME: 418 new ideas submitted (↑ 42% vs last period)

• Idea Futures Index is rotating out of generic “AI/SaaS for everyone” and into “I’ll sell you something specific and help you do it.”

• Classic SaaS submissions cratered (saas down ~69%, ai/tech both down ~52%, edtech down ~58%), while e‑commerce ideas jumped 42% and consulting/services both spiked ~44% as founders chase faster path-to-cash and client-funded MVPs.

  
  

  
  

🔬 VALIDATION REALITY CHECK

This week's hard truth:

Of the few thousand ideas submitted in the last 7 days:

• 89% still have no MVP

• 11% have progressed to MVP stage

• 45.3% still need a landing page (almost half of you flagged a website need)

• Idea volume is up, but MVP momentum is flat and brutally concentrated.
  
  

📈 WEEKEND SPIKES

Weekend spike:

e-commerce (+42% WoW) and “consulting/services” (+44% WoW) ideas surged.

This lines up with external signals: Reddit is full of indie SaaS and agency founders talking GTM, while Crunchbase/TechCrunch show AI infra money flowing but not into small operators: so solo founders are defaulting to “services now, product later.”

👀 THIS WEEK'S WATCHLIST

1. Vertical SaaS for “boring” ops, not more generic tools

• Product Hunt is packed with AI-native ops tools (Sphere for tax, Kaaj for credit risk, Coverbase for procurement).

• The pattern: VCs are loudly saying “AI’s next phase is vertical, regulated, workflow-deep,” while indie founders are retreating from SaaS as “too crowded.”

2. AI evaluation, observability, and “agent QA” as a category

• Founders are still pitching “AI agents,” but “ai agents” search interest is actually down ~19%, while the money and launches are moving into agent evaluation, tracing, and safety.

3. Pet tech platforms for SMBs

• “Pet tech” is trending up (+12%), and internally we see repeated problems around “reliability, affordability, visibility for pet businesses,” plus Product Hunt hits like PawChamp validating consumer demand.

   

4. Safer local commerce infrastructure in emerging markets

• Global marketplaces and short‑term rental platforms are getting hammered by regulators (Kiki fined in NYC), which opens space for locally-compliant, trust-first platforms.

• The pattern: “Uber for X” is dead; “verified, insured, compliant rails for local buyers/sellers” is rising.

📊 MICRO-TRENDS

• Vertical SaaS is quietly heating up while “AI agents” cool off in both ValidatorAI submissions and Google Trends, signaling a shift from speculative automation toys to revenue-linked workflow software in specific industries.

• Pattern inside the pattern: the most interesting new ideas aren’t “AI for everything” but AI-bolted vertical SaaS for narrow, high-LTV micro-niches where buyers don’t care that it’s AI, as long as it kills a painful, expensive workflow.
  

  
  
  

🎯 ONE THING TO DO TODAY

Today’s spike is in e-commerce and consulting/services.

DM or email 10 e-commerce operators (Shopify app founders, Amazon FBA sellers, or niche DTC brands) and ask one brutally specific question:

“What’s the most annoying, recurring task you still do manually every week that you’d pay to never think about again?”

Track responses in a simple sheet and commit to building (or killing) your current idea based on whether at least 3 of them describe the same pain in different words.

That's it for Market Movers Monday. See you tomorrow.

Aron Meystedt

Chief Data Nerd at ValidatorAI.com

Let’s connect on LinkedIn!