Indeed. And the reason I look over my wife's shoulder now and then when she's on her computer.

She's a craft/fashion/music/wedding nut and I've had more than a couple ideas for that half of the population.

A couple of days ago, I read the following article: http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/27/million-dollar-businesses-e...

One of the businesses is Jimmy Beans Wool, started in 2002 with $30k and had $2.1 mil revenue in 2008.

now boasts an average of 20,000 customers per month, mostly through the Web site.

Agreed. I am currently working on a site to fill a need that my wife, an artist, has. I found that the best way to find great ideas is to ask friends and family.

The downside with friends and family is that they want to help you. Regular people want to help themselves. Find regular people, ask what their problems are, solve them, make money.

Definitely. My wife was a early member of ravelry, and watching their success made an impression on me. Before it existed, knitters were mostly members of some vbulletin-like board whose name escapes me. I suppose that a good way to identify these underserved markets would be to look for popular vbulletin/phpbb sites aimed at some particular hobby, and try to think of ways to make something more useful for those hobbyists.

Also, you don't have to limit yourself to the female half of the population. There are lots of industries with a significant male presence that use some crap software. I can't believe how bad some of the software is that I've used working for non-technical companies.

Working on my own: http://doleaf.com

Not that guys can't be into gardens as well. I love getting my hands dirty :)

I have a couple ideas for startups in this space. Would love to know what you all think. Products/Companies that cater to a largely female, largely suburban audience have a tremendous amount of potential.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=804063