Finding the problem is the hard part

ecorner.stanford.edu

33 points·sajid··7 comments

They got 1 billion not for solving the right problem or for solving a hard problem, they just sold it at the right time to the right customer in the biggest dot com bubble since 2000 and I don't think this requires too much talent, only lots of good luck.

There is too much focus on building some hype and find a good exit fast, this is bad, we need startups that solve problems, adds value to society, we need to get rid of the financial speculation and the bubble.

Isn't it sad that building products that add real value into people's lives is turning into a novel idea? Stop building "clever products", build useful ones that people will love. Money comes later, imo.

You're right with much you said nevertheless you still have to solve something users (in millions) want - have a solution - be useful.

They have / had millions of users and that's were such valuations with consumer products come from at least in the moment. Yes we seen that before particularly up into 1999 with tech start-ups, but even worse with telcos / operators that sunk billions.

The hype alone does only help for a short moment - if you have not found a way to monetize - be useful at that point, your company (and all your money) is going to melt away quicker than you finished dreaming up the numbers you were worth on paper yesterday.

I think a bigger takeaway was their statement: be bold to adopt simple solutions. A lot of problems take too long to reach the market because people think their solution is too simple, and might be ridiculed by intellectuals.

Somebody needs to create a startup to find problems for startups :-)

Finding the problem which can be solved is the hard part..

That is right. I picked the most obvious problem, spam, and searched for a solution. I found one. That was all the easy part.

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