4 ms·

Something I see missing from a lot of these startup discussions are the ideas of identity and community. Sure, "solving a problem" is important. But Nike isn't

Something I see missing from a lot of these startup discussions are the ideas of identity and community. Sure, "solving a problem" is important. But Nike isn't solving a problem that other shoe companies haven't solved a thousand times over. The reason they're successful is that buying into their brand makes you part of a bigger community, and that community has a positive identity attached to it. Same thing with a startup like Exposure (https://exposure.co/ https://exposure.co/). Sure, the product is great, but they're also fostering a community and projecting a very specific image. Without that special "something" they'd be no different from Flickr or the countless other photo sharing services out there. This brings me to Dinnr. Did you try to grow a community of passionate members organically by writing a blog, hosting events, being active on forums like whatever the Hacker News for cooking is? Or did you just try to "solve a problem"?

theseoafs 12y ago
> Or did you just try to "solve a problem"? This comment misses the point. The first goal of a startup should be to solve a problem. Companies identify problems and offer solutions to customers. If you've started a company without having identified and solved a problem a lot of people face, you've already failed as a business. Trying to organize a "community of passionate members" should be considered incidental, particularly considering that the overwhelming majority of successful companies (particularly young ones) have no organized "passionate" community whatsoever. You don't need to spend your free time hosting events to rally people around your brand identity if your product is legitimately good and useful -- and if your product is legitimately good and useful you'll attract brand loyalty organically anyway. Trying to do this in the opposite order by attempting to bind people to a brand that hasn't proven its worth and doesn't actually do anything worthwhile is going to be futile.
- sgdesign 12y ago
  Well, there are countless successful products that don't "solve a problem". What problem do Call of Duty or League of Legends solve? What "problem" would the hypothetical iWatch solve? In other words, solving problems is great and all, but you can also make a great product that people just enjoy using, and let it grow organically. Of course, you could argue that any good product does solve a problem. But my point is that despite what everybody says, the problem doesn't always have to be the starting point.
  - onlyfortoday 12y ago
    of course all of duty solves a problem: entertainment also why would people use a product they enjoy that doesn't solve a problem?
davemel37 12y ago
Nike definitely solves a problem...A big one... called, "Identity." The functional problem it solves as a shoe may not need solving, but indentifying with a brand, culture and community is a much more powerful need than protection for feet. If you really think about it...Pain points are primarily emotion driven and solutions need to solve the emotional point much more than the functional one. (the functional point is just the ante to play the game.)

theseoafs 12y ago

> Or did you just try to "solve a problem"? This comment misses the point. The first goal of a startup should be to solve a problem. Companies identify problems and offer solutions to customers. If you've started a company without having identified and solved a problem a lot of people face, you've already failed as a business. Trying to organize a "community of passionate members" should be considered incidental, particularly considering that the overwhelming majority of successful companies (particularly young ones) have no organized "passionate" community whatsoever. You don't need to spend your free time hosting events to rally people around your brand identity if your product is legitimately good and useful -- and if your product is legitimately good and useful you'll attract brand loyalty organically anyway. Trying to do this in the opposite order by attempting to bind people to a brand that hasn't proven its worth and doesn't actually do anything worthwhile is going to be futile.

sgdesign 12y ago
Well, there are countless successful products that don't "solve a problem". What problem do Call of Duty or League of Legends solve? What "problem" would the hypothetical iWatch solve? In other words, solving problems is great and all, but you can also make a great product that people just enjoy using, and let it grow organically. Of course, you could argue that any good product does solve a problem. But my point is that despite what everybody says, the problem doesn't always have to be the starting point.
- onlyfortoday 12y ago
  of course all of duty solves a problem: entertainment also why would people use a product they enjoy that doesn't solve a problem?

davemel37 12y ago

Nike definitely solves a problem...A big one... called, "Identity." The functional problem it solves as a shoe may not need solving, but indentifying with a brand, culture and community is a much more powerful need than protection for feet. If you really think about it...Pain points are primarily emotion driven and solutions need to solve the emotional point much more than the functional one. (the functional point is just the ante to play the game.)