Is there really such a thing as a gap in the market anymore?

Everyone's an entrepreneur now. Every niche is claimed. Every app has been built. So why do new businesses keep winning and what does that mean for you?

Ask anyone who's ever had a business idea and you'll hear the same phrase: "I just need to find a gap in the market." It's practically startup gospel. Find the thing nobody else is doing, plant your flag, and profit. Simple, right?

Except in 2026, that idea is starting to feel a little outdated or at least, a little naive. With more people starting businesses than ever before, tools that let one person do the work of a team, and AI handling everything from customer service to content creation, the landscape has completely changed. So, the real question is does a "gap in the market" actually still exist? And if not, what the hell do we look for instead?

Entrepreneurship isn't a niche path anymore

Starting a business used to require serious capital, a thick rolodex and a willingness to bet your life savings on a hunch. It was brave, borderline reckless and not something most people seriously considered. That's simply not the reality anymore.

Today, you can validate a business idea over a weekend, build a website in an afternoon, run paid ads for $5 a day, and take payments before you've even made the product. Platforms like Shopify, Substack, Etsy and TikTok Shop have collapsed the barrier between "person with an idea" and "person running a business." The result? An explosion of founders and a market that's more saturated than ever.

436,018 62% $69B

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there are now 2.73 million actively trading businesses in Australia and in 2023–24 alone, over 436,000 new ones entered the market.

CommBank data shows Millennials and Gen Z accounted for 62% of all new business account openings in the year to March 2025 and more than half of Gen Z business owners say growth is their number one priority this year, according to SmartCompany.

Australia's e-commerce market hit roughly A$69 billion in 2024, with 18 million online shoppers each spending an average of A$4,040 a year, per Landmark Global.

So has every gap been filled?

Here's where it gets interesting. On the surface, it seems like every conceivable idea has been done. Want to sell candles? There are 10,000 candle brands on Instagram. Starting a podcast? There are four million of them. Building a productivity app? You're competing with tools backed by billion dollar companies.

But look closer, and you'll notice something, the most successful new businesses aren't winning because they found an empty space. They're winning because they found a better way to serve a space that already exists.

Think about it. Nobody "needed" another coffee brand. And yet Blank Street Coffee built a cult following by rethinking the format. Nobody needed another gym. Yet Hyrox created an entirely new category of fitness. Uber didn't invent taxis. Airbnb didn't invent hotels. The gap wasn't absence it was friction, frustration, or a segment of people who felt overlooked.

The new definition of a gap

In 2026, a gap in the market looks less like an empty shelf and more like one of these things:

An underserved audience. A product might exist, but does it exist for your specific demographic, community, or cultural context? Plenty of mainstream products have adjacent niches screaming out for something made just for them.

A broken experience. If buying, using, or talking about a product feels clunky, confusing, or cold that's your gap. You don't need to reinvent the product. You need to reinvent the experience around it.

A trust deficit. In saturated markets, the founder who builds the most genuine connection wins. People don't just buy products anymore they buy into people. Your perspective, your story, and your values are differentiators that can't be copied.

A timing play. Something that didn't work five years ago might be perfectly positioned now. New technology, cultural shifts, and changing behaviours constantly open windows that weren't there before.

Accessibility changed everything for better and for worse

The democratisation of entrepreneurship is genuinely exciting. More diverse founders are building businesses. People are escaping careers that didn't fit them. Side hustles are becoming real companies. That's all worth celebrating.

But there's a flip side, more accessibility means more noise. The barrier to starting is low, which means the barrier to standing out has never been higher. Anyone can start a business. Far fewer people take the time to deeply understand their customer, sharpen their positioning, or build something with a genuine point of view.

What this means if you're starting something

Stop looking for the thing nobody has thought of. The odds that you've stumbled on a completely untouched idea are vanishingly small and chasing that often leads to building something nobody actually wants.

Instead, look for the thing nobody has done well enough, for the people who've been ignored, or in the way that feels most authentic to you. The market isn't "full." It's just full of mediocre versions of things. There's almost always room for the best version.

The gap in the market is still there. It just looks different than it used to and finding it requires a different kind of thinking than it once did.

With love (and frankness),

Bea x

Further reading 🖤

Australian Bureau of Statistics — Counts of Australian Businesses 2024–25

Dynamic Business — Australia's Business Boom 2024

CommBank — Gen Z & Millennial Entrepreneurship Report 2025

SmartCompany — Gen Z Business Owners 2025

Landmark Global — Australia E-Commerce Factsheet 2025