Step 1: Solve Real Problems
Have you ever heard of companies failing due to lack of product market fit? Yea me too, it’s the #1 reason companies fail. And 98% of startups fail in the first 5 years. But how do you avoid this in your own entrepreneurial journey? Start with the problem… but how? Read on.
Think of all the businesses you have seen come and go, especially start ups. What do they have in common? Here are some examples for you with my own crude translations:
- Zume. It’s robot pizza ovens. Like robots that make pizza on the way to your house… autonomously?
They probably thought something like ‘The problem was slow pizza delivery’. Turns out, people don’t need pizzas made by robots while they’re en route
- uBiome. Send your poop in the mail, get back… genetics information?
They probably thought something like ‘the problem was people’s lack of access to personal microbiome data.’ But it turns out, most people didn’t care about sending their poop through the mail to get genetic information they didn’t really know how to use.
- Juicero. Opens really expensive juice pouches for you. For $400. Plus pouches.
They probably thought something like, ‘the problem was that squeezing juice packets by hand was too inconvenient’. However, customers quickly realized they could just squeeze the packets themselves—without a $400 machine.
Try it yourself. What problems were these companies actually trying to solve? Is that a real problem that lots of people have? Without a clear problem, you spend a lot of time trying to convince potential customers that they have a problem they don’t or that isn’t important to them. That's hard and it's expensive.
Now think of businesses that have been really successful. One thing they have in common is a clear and pressing problem to solve.
- Google. The internet was a giant disorganized mess.
- Stripe. Accepting online payments was complicated and technically almost impossible for businesses.
- Square. Small merchants struggled to accept credit card payments due to high barriers to entry. Remember when small businesses only accepted cash? I sure do.
For so many reasons, including business, viability reasons, it’s a whole lot easier to have wind at your back in building a business when you focus on a clear and compelling problem.
So where do you start?
Start by priming your brain to notice problems. All problems, not thinking whether or not they are good businesses, just whether or not they are problems. I constantly collect problems by keeping a note on my phone.
Here are some examples from my list. Notice this is literally just problems, not necessarily viable businesses or solvable problems:
Deep thoughts? Absolutely not. Also, sometimes you find out your problem has already been solved pretty well. And for $18.99.
The point is not to identify billion dollar ideas but to prime your brain to notice problems. I find them during bike rides, walking around town, working, at the grocery store… literally everywhere. You’ll see these too, just write them down and don’t judge.
Every day for the next week, jot down five problems you notice—no matter how small. We will revisit them later to see if any stand out as bigger opportunities with my next 2 steps.