As part of my job over the last several years, I have often been tasked with finding hard-to-find information. This typically involves digging through thousands of pages of archived documents, submitting freedom of information requests, and travelling to libraries to gain access to older documents which were never digitised. In many cases this was related to resolving a discrepancy where one government office was saying A and a second government office was saying B and I had to get definitive proof of who’s right and who’s wrong.

I’ve gotten quite good at it and can’t help but wonder if there is a business opportunity here. The latest generations are so used to getting the information they seek with a single Google search that they often lack the skills required to obtain information from other sources. While it is usually free to submit a freedom of information request, there can be a steep learning curve. The first time I submitted a request to the Mexican government it took hours of scrolling through poorly written webpages with the help of Google Translate just to create a user profile. The 2nd time it took me 4 minutes.

Is there a business opportunity here? Which industries or niches would it make sense to target?