“I scratched my own itch” isn’t good enough

by Jason Cohen on January 1, 2030

WARNING: Still in draft
This article is unfinished, made public for feedback and contemplation.

This isn’t the humble-brag you think it is; The most common origin story is also common to startups that fail. But it’s a start.

Tell me about a time when you came up with a brilliant idea that revolutionized your industry and saved your company from almost certain ruin.

For a company to succeed, many conditions must be true—or true enough that they’re not fatal. Whether you address those things like the Drake equation, or the list of questions you have to answer during the “Explore” phase. A market has to exist, with a price must work both for building a real business, and for customer affordability and value . All while avoiding the typical things that causes startups to fail.

Often left out of these lists is you. The company has to be right for you, personally.

The simplest test is to ask:

Why are you the right person to start and grow this company?

The typical answer is: “I had this problem myself, so I built a product.”

Sounds good! Here’s what the founder is implying:

I understand the problem.
I have an attachment and passion for the problem.
I know how to solve it.
I have the ability to execute it.
I understand my customers, because I am one.
Others have this problem, and will choose my solution.
I have what it takes.

The worst part is, some of those are true! Intermittent reinforcement is the strongest form of training. That’s why it’s problematic: You refuse to see why some of these elements are false, because some are true.

This blindness consistently leads to failure. It is possible that most startups begin this way; it is definite that most of those startups fail.

Let’s pick this apart to see how to use “I had the problem myself” as a springboard, rather than following the usual glideslope to failure.

1. I understand the problem.

You do. At least, you understand your version of the problem. The world is big, and getting 1000 customers means solving a variety of related problems, even if you’re targeting a niche.

Sometimes you really do have this understanding. Maybe you’re a consultant and you’ve seen 13 variants of this problem. Or you’ve been engineer around this for 10 years at three different companies and you’ve seen a lot. Or you’ve researched this for years as a passion.

Either way, you’re off to a great start, but you need to view “the problem” through your customers’ eyes. They might see the same problem but use different language¹. They might have the same type of problem but it appears in four distinct forms, so you need to either pick some to solve, or use features and language to show how you address all four. They might need to integrate with systems you haven’t head of. Their budget might be 1/10th or 10x larger than yours was.

¹ For example, Discord used to say “get a free community space,” but it turned out that kids were accustomed to “setting up servers,” therefore it made more sense for them to say “get a free chat server.” They are called “servers” to this very day.

Take this initial understanding, and interview customers to answer these additional questions.

2. I have an attachment and passion for the problem.

This one is very likely to be true. You cared enough to investigate the problem and derived satisfaction from solving it. You were drawn to both problem and solution. It ticks several personal boxes, which explains why it’s such a common startup origin story. I believe you.

Passion is required, because it gets you through the hard times. The things you don’t want to do (like everything else in this article). The pain of constant rejection—by potential customers not buying, by potential hires not accepting, by potential investors not investing, by friends and family and Twitter and Hackernews dismissing you, by bad product reviews, by cancellations. The setbacks, the engineering problems that took long than you thought, the customer acquisition that isn’t happening as fast as you dreamed. The pain of seeing others succeed while you struggle, especially if they’re a direct competitor².

² Although, remember the day before a competitor goes out of business, all their social media and press is positive, about hiring, growing, new features, and happy customers. Do not believe what you see.

You need the motivation to push through. You must have some personal connection, whether you love the work or the problem—ideally both. “I solved my own problem” is a good motivator, but you will have to be strong enough to face what is coming.

3. I know how to solve it.

You know how to solve it one facet of it, where exactly one person understands it, in the exact configuration and constraints that you had.

Now, I can believe you can solve the other cases too. Most things with computers can be solved.

So, again this one is likely true. Good! There are many cases where it is not, especially in AI where demos look great but they immediately fail (to be good enough, often enough) in the real world.

4. I have the ability to execute it.

Whoa there. I know you can write the code, but most of what a company has to do to succeed are things other than writing code.

Do you have the ability to write a headline on the home page that attracts the right person in three seconds, or does it just say "[blank] doesn’t have to suck" because you’re a lazy writer who has never written a high-performing hook?

Do you have the ability to get dozens of qualified leads onto the pricing page, or have you never created a single successful marketing campaign?

There are many other things (listed here). That’s what “it” is that you have to execute.

Does this mean you’re going to fail? Not at all… unless you don’t face this truth and decide you’re going to spend half your time executing “it” rather than just writing code, assuming that just because you have something working, the rest of the company will come naturally.

5. I understand my customers, because I am one.

You are absolutely not like your customers.

You were so frustrated with the current solutions, decided to build your own rather than buy and implement something that existed.

So, you’re like exactly 0 of your customers.

Your customers have day jobs, and you’re lucky if this is one the top 3 problems they’re experiencing right now. And yet, that’s the list of problems they have the budget and time to solve.

So, you have to find and interview potential customers, to learn what they are actually like, using your experience as the justification of your first theory (as described in that article), iterating until you actually understand your customers.

6. Others have this problem, and will choose my solution.

This fallacy is the #1 reason why companies fail when they start with “I solved the problem for myself.”

I believe you identified a real problem and that you have a solution, but so many other things have to go right before there’s a market that can sustain even a solo entrepreneur.

There have to be enough people who have the problem, and know they have the problem so that they’re out searching for a solution, and have a budget for solving it, and would rather buy from you than a competitor, and will stick around for longer than a couple of months. The list continues; this article on finding good markets helps you evaluate the market to make sure all the other pieces are in place.

While you might find existing solutions inadequate, potential customers might consider them “good enough,” making them unwilling to risk switching to a new product.

There are a hundred times more legitimate problems in the world than there are markets to solve those problems. So when you erroneously think that just because there’s a problem, there’s a company, you will almost always be disappointed.

7. I have what it takes.

I have no reason to doubt you.

In fact I would encourage you: That you yourself don’t know what you’re capable of, until you try. Indeed, today you probably don’t have what it takes, but that was true of every other successful first-time founder.

So don’t give in to impostor syndrome, but get ready to experience the gauntlet of Klingon pain sticks that await you.

Rather than thinking it’s all in the bag, think the opposite: Almost everything you’ll need to succeed, you don’t have yet: Knowledge of customer, market, marketing, sales, finance, everything. Yet.

Even second-time founders typically fail. I’ve had four successful startups, two unicorns, bootstrapped and funded, and still most of my initial ideas about most things are wrong. So, everyone needs a Beginner’s Mind. Everyone needs to leverage their Pivot Points to win in their own way.

You current idea is the spark; the right idea is still out there. You have to go get it.

I know you can do it.