Pain Point Finder

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.

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

Example:

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.

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

Example:

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:

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

Top N from scan output:

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:

Problem: One-sentence description of the pain
Evidence: Top quotes + agreement count + subreddit
Who feels this: Type of person/business affected
Current solutions & gaps: What people have tried (from solutionAttempts) and why it fails
Competitive landscape: Tools mentioned (from mentionedTools)
Opportunity: What's missing in current solutions
Idea sketch: Brief product/service concept
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