Build a Startup from a Hidden Problem (UK Playbook)

In 2020–2021, one of the clearest lessons from COVID wasn’t about science — it was about timing. When leaders get information a few days late, they don’t just make slower decisions. They make worse ones.

Claire Trant noticed something most people ignore: long before someone takes a sick day or books a GP appointment, they’ve already left clues behind in the most unglamorous place possible — wastewater. That observation became Untap Health, a UK startup building automated, on-site wastewater testing to spot infectious disease risk early.

This story fits perfectly in our UK Solopreneur Business Growth series because it shows a repeatable pattern: find an overlooked signal, package it into an outcome your buyer will pay for, and grow through trust-building marketing — not hype. If you’re a one-person business (or heading that way), the specifics may differ, but the playbook is the same.

The startup opportunity most founders miss: “unsexy” problems

The highest-leverage startup ideas are often the least Instagrammable. They live inside compliance, operations, facilities, procurement, risk, and public health — places where buyers have budgets and pain is measurable.

Wastewater surveillance is a strong example because it turns a messy input (sewage) into a clean business output: earlier decisions. People shed viruses and bacteria in their toilet before they feel ill. Testing wastewater can provide an outbreak warning days ahead of symptomatic reporting.

For founders, the insight isn’t “start a sewage company.” It’s this:

If you can detect a problem earlier than everyone else, you can sell certainty in uncertain conditions.

That’s a commercial proposition, not a science project.

Why “hidden problems” sell well in the UK

UK buyers (especially in education, healthcare, local authorities, and large employers) are cautious. They don’t want novelty. They want proof, risk reduction, and procurement-friendly value.

Hidden problems tend to have:

• Clear cost centres (sick leave, shutdowns, agency staff, outbreak management)
• Named decision-makers (Head of Estates, Infection Control Lead, HR Director, Operations Manager)
• Auditable outcomes (incidents prevented, absence reduced, continuity maintained)

If you’re building a UK startup, boring problems can be your advantage — because the competition is often weaker and the willingness to pay is higher.

From engineer to founder: the moment a “project” becomes a business

Claire’s lightbulb moment came during COVID wastewater detection work: it worked, but it was slow, manual, and largely limited to big, centralised programmes. The gap wasn’t “can this be done?” — it was “can this be done easily on-site by normal teams?”

That’s the difference between an academic innovation and a scalable product.

A business begins when you can answer three questions clearly:

1. Who has the pain frequently? (Care homes, schools, offices, farms, venues.)
2. What decision changes when they know earlier? (Send teams home, shift meetings online, increase cleaning, adjust staffing, protect vulnerable people.)
3. What’s the cost of being late? (Outbreaks, shutdowns, reputational risk, lost revenue, sick pay.)

Untap Health’s early case study — an office with immunocompromised leadership — is a textbook example of finding an initial wedge. When the stakes are high, buyers listen. And when the outcome is tangible (reduced exposure risk and better planning), you get the kind of proof that marketing can amplify.

Strong positioning isn’t clever wording. It’s a specific buyer, a specific risk, and a specific decision you help them make.

The “messy middle” is normal — and marketable

Most companies get this wrong: they treat the messy middle like a private shame. It isn’t. It’s part of the story buyers trust.

Wastewater testing isn’t software. Samples vary. Conditions change. Biology is complex. Turning a manual lab process into automated, on-site testing means iterating through failed prototypes, unreliable readings, and operational edge cases.

For solopreneurs and small UK teams, this is encouraging because it normalises reality:

• Your first offer won’t be your final offer.
• Your first funnel won’t be your long-term funnel.
• Your first ICP (ideal customer profile) will shift.

How to turn the messy middle into growth content

In the UK Solopreneur Business Growth context, the big lesson is marketing: if you’re building something complex, you need to market your learning while you build.

Here’s what works (and what I’ve seen convert into leads consistently):

1. Build in public, but with buyer-facing proof
   • Share what you measured, what changed, and what improved.
   • Skip vague wins. Use specifics: time saved, steps removed, fewer incidents.

1. Document constraints honestly

   • “Here’s what this approach can’t do yet” builds credibility.
   • UK buyers reward realism.

2. Create “decision content”

   • Content that helps a Headteacher, Care Home Manager, or Ops lead decide what to do when risk rises.

A simple format:

• Signal: “Norovirus risk rising on-site”
• Decision: “Increase hygiene measures + reduce group activities for 72 hours”
• Outcome: “Fewer absences, fewer closures”

That’s not just storytelling. It’s lead generation.

Turning purpose into a revenue engine (without sounding preachy)

Untap Health’s work clearly has social good baked in: safer communities, earlier outbreak response, better resilience. That’s powerful — but purpose only scales when it’s tied to the buyer’s incentives.

The buyer doesn’t purchase purpose. They purchase outcomes.

For wastewater health monitoring, those outcomes often look like:

• Reduced operational disruption (fewer surprise outbreaks)
• Protection for vulnerable groups (care settings, immunocompromised staff)
• Lower sickness absence costs (less reactive firefighting)
• Better planning (hybrid work decisions, staffing adjustments)

If you’re a founder building a mission-led product, don’t lead with “we want to change the world.” Lead with the operational result.

Mission gets attention. Measurable outcomes get budget approval.

A practical monetisation model for “early warning” startups

If your product provides early warning (health, security, compliance, churn, fraud, maintenance), a clean UK-friendly model is:

• Monthly subscription per site (simple for procurement)
• Tiered pricing by coverage (number of buildings, populations, or tests)
• Implementation fee if there’s installation/training
• Optional: incident support retainer (when a risk spike happens)

The key is that your pricing must map to a buyer’s mental accounting:

• “This costs less than one week of disruption.”
• “This costs less than one outbreak response.”
• “This costs less than persistent sick leave.”

A founder’s rule that actually holds up: obsess over the problem

Claire’s advice — stay obsessed with the problem, not the solution — is one of the few startup slogans that stays true in the real world.

For UK solopreneurs, it’s also tactical. If you stay close to the problem, your marketing becomes easier because you’re not inventing angles — you’re reflecting what customers already say.

A simple “problem obsession” checklist (use this monthly)

Answer these without opening your pitch deck:

1. What triggers the pain? (seasonal illness, winter pressure, term-time spread, peak events)
2. Who feels it first? (ops, HR, infection control, facilities)
3. What do they do today? (reactive cleaning, mass emails, testing, sending everyone home)
4. What do they hate about that? (late signals, cost, disruption, staff stress)
5. What would “better” look like in one sentence? (“We want a heads-up before it hits us.”)

If you can’t answer those, you don’t have a marketing problem. You have a discovery problem.

“People also ask” (the questions your content should answer)

Is wastewater testing accurate enough for decision-making? Accurate enough means actionable, not perfect. Your job is to tie the signal to a decision and show outcomes over time (site-by-site baselines, trends, repeatability).

Who buys community health monitoring in the UK? Usually organisations with duty-of-care and continuity risk: care providers, schools, universities, large employers, venues, and sometimes local authorities.

How do you market a technical product as a small team? Win with clarity: one buyer, one risk, one decision, one proof point. Technical depth belongs in annexes and FAQs — not in the first message.

What this means for your own UK startup marketing

This story is an origin story, but it’s also a growth lesson: your next lead is more likely to come from trust than virality. In January, when UK organisations are dealing with post-holiday illness spikes, winter pressures, and tight budgets, buyers don’t want inspiration. They want a plan.

If you’re building as a solopreneur (or with a tiny team), take the pattern and apply it:

• Find an ignored signal.
• Make it usable on-site, not just theoretically possible.
• Anchor the offer to a decision and a cost of delay.
• Publish proof as you go — case studies, baselines, before/after.

The forward-looking question worth sitting with is simple: what’s the thing your customers already have, already produce, or already do — that could become an early warning system if you measured it properly?