The key insight we got while working on ProblemHunt 🦄
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The key insight we got while working on ProblemHunt: a startup's success directly depends on the intensity of the pain it solves. Everything else is secondary. This is exactly what Paul Graham (YC founder) meant when he wrote about the importance of solving acute problems, not shallow ones.
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ProblemHunt
Yes, product quality, marketing, market size, and everything else matters — but only after you've found a strong pain.
Most successful startups (Facebook, Airbnb, Stripe, DoorDash, Dropbox, and others) solved exactly that — a strong pain of their users.
Paul Graham himself confirms this through the success of his own accelerator, which ranks first in the world — and more precisely, through the results of the startups that went through it.
@gostroverhov 100%. I think it really boils down to how well customers resonate with the problem solution too. If their existing state causes enough emotional distress to warrant a product solution, it can take hold pretty quicky.
ProblemHunt
@blakeatvassant Totally agree, my friend :)
Completely agree people rarely switch tools for nice to have improvements. But if you solve a painful, frequent, and expensive problem, users will forgive imperfections and adopt fast.
ProblemHunt
@gerald__brouillette Spot on, my friend!
That's why the "scratch your own itch" method of startup founding is so profound. I made Spec Kitty not to turn it into a startup, but to make my own product development faster and more reliable.
ProblemHunt
@robert_douglass Robert, I think you're doing everything right, good luck 🦄
ProblemHunt
Absolutely agree
ProblemHunt
@gostroverhova Thank you :)