The business idea you don't have to invent

The number one question Pat Walls gets from aspiring founders is "How do I come up with a good business idea?" His answer, backed by a concrete example from a solo developer named Adrian, is that you don't have to. Adrian saw a successful app listed for sale on a marketplace, decided not to buy it, and instead rebuilt a competing version from scratch. That rebuilt app now generates $20,000 per month. As Adrian puts it, "If something is working, you have a moral obligation to copy it."

The episode walks through exactly how Adrian identified the opportunity, validated it, and executed the copy — and the psychological principles that make this approach work for someone who feels stuck on idea generation.

Why copying beats inventing

The core insight is that most aspiring founders overvalue originality. They want a novel idea, but novelty introduces massive uncertainty. Copying a proven business removes the biggest risk: whether anyone will pay for it. Adrian's approach was to look at marketplaces where existing businesses are listed for sale — platforms like Acquire.com, Flippa, or MicroAcquire — and find apps that were already generating revenue. If an app is making money and someone is trying to sell it, that's a signal that the business model works.