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As a former startup founder, I totally empathize - it's always clearer with hindsight but it's important to honestly reflect so you can apply the lessons learne
by mifeng 10y ago
As a former startup founder, I totally empathize - it's always clearer with hindsight but it's important to honestly reflect so you can apply the lessons learned to the next turn of the ferris wheel.
> We set out to build a good database system, but users wanted a good way to do X.
If you replace "database system" with "[any product]," it encapsulates the reason why many startups fail. I was guilty of it too. I think it's a common pitfall for technical founders who tend to think in terms of solutions rather than problems.
If you have some free time, I would recommend the book What Customers Want by Anthony Ulwick, which offers a systematic approach to formulating a product that satisfies a market's underserved needs.
- timv 10y ago> I think it's a common pitfall for technical founders There's a very closely related form that is common for non-technical founders which is "We're going to use technology to fix ____ industry" A founder with experience in a particular industry may see how inefficient it is, and how much scope there is for improvement based on technological solutions, but business live-an-die by the question: "Are there enough people who will pay us to solve this problem for them?" Superficially, it seems like "I can make your business run more efficiently" is a reasonable approximation for "I have something that you will pay money for", but it has a very similar value-gap to "I can provide you with a technically better database". "More efficient" and "technically better" are both things that ought to be valuable to customers, but often aren't valuable enough to get them to hand over their money.