I’ve wasted my time and money working on (multiple) problems that no one has but I didn’t realize it when I started on it. So I want to learn from successful entrepreneurs on how to break out of this loop. Spill the beans please.
Edit: would be great if you can tell your personal story on how you found it vs generic “look for your own pain points”.
Successful entrepreneurs How did you find problems worth solving for?
byu/nisthana inEntrepreneur
Posted by nisthana
21 Comments
Scratch your own itch. What problems do you have that you can solve that would benefit people?
Or pay attention to things around you when people are complaining about something and ask yourself if you can solve.
Normally this comes from deep industry knowledge where you work in an industry and gain insights that others can’t see and then solve that problem for that specific industry.
Rarely ever will you be able to just manifest some problem and create a business out of it from thin air just by trying to “think” of a problem.
Look at what frustrates you daily. Chances are if it annoys you, it annoys others too. Solving that pain point can be huge.
your own personal experience (industry insights/knowledge or from people around you) is an easy place to start building intuition or hypotheses on problems
then you need to go talk to people who should have the problem. talk to as many people as you can.
ask about their past behavior, not opinions. “when was the last time you solved this? would you pay for this? vs. what do you think about this idea?” people tend to lie to not hurt your feelings.
try to sell a solution before you make it. a landing page, a vibe coded website, a waitlist, a pre-order.
charge early. if people won’t pay, it’s not a business
I worked in my field (real estate) for 3 years before starting my company (Va agency for real estate). Really helps to have domain knowledge.
i think talking to prospective customer will help and best to choose domain in which you have most significant experience.
also while doing something if you constantly asking question or you struggle to do it on a regular basis may be then you are around a problem statement.
My fourth business is the first that has real success and longevity. What lead me to this was the lessons and failures of the other 3. TBH my recipe was never giving up the dream keeping my ears and eyes open and ultimately just getting lucky. For me it got a lot harder to start another one knowing how hard it is, but it made me smart enough to jump at the right opportunity and it worked out. I wish I could give you some secret sauce other than “get lucky”. But I do believe if you stay in the game you’ll find something and get lucky or come up with something. TBH the hardest part was being in the phase of I want to start something without an idea. One piece of advice is it doesn’t have to be sexy or game changing and be patient(maybe find a job in the interim). There’s a lot of ways to make money you just have to keep an open mind and ear.
I think the trick is to spend more time talking to people than thinking alone. When I was freelancing, I asked every client “what part of your day do you hate the most?” and patterns started showing.
Two different clients complained about onboarding new hires. That became the seed for a small SaaS we later spun up. If three different people complain about the same thing, it’s usually a problem worth solving
For me, it wasn’t about chasing the “next idea” but finally realizing who I was actually meant to serve. I had to stop making it about me and start asking, where do my heart, body, mind, and soul line up with what others truly need?
Sometimes you just see it, other than that .. Market research
My biggest problem is super long 4hr daily commute. Alas I can’t solve this one. Other problem is that I think I don’t have enough retirement money. Not sure how to solve this one. Other problem is that I have a dream of building a unicorn startup but I’ve been failing trying to do that. I have not found a solution. So if I look at myself, I have problems that are unique to me and that I cannot solve. Just one perspective 🙂
I’d always done tech support for friends/family. One day in 09 my girlfriend happened to accompany me to my cousin’s best friend’s house to set up a PC. Afterward she observed, “Hey, you’re good at explaining this stuff; why don’t you do it for a living?” I balked, but she reminded me, “While you’re broke, you might as well!”
I had an inkling that seniors were being ripped off by big box stores, but over the next couple of years I learned how rampant it was. The more ripoffs I discovered, the angrier I got, but now see it as a huge opportunity for good people to earn a living saving these folks.
Hardly anybody’s doing it, and only a few of them are doing it right!
So it fell into my lap. All ya gotta do is ask around, and people will tell you they’re terrified of tech. All they want is for someone to come by and turn off all the stupidity.
The best problems worth solving usually show up as repeated complaints or expensive workarounds people already tolerate. Instead of chasing inspiration, listening for patterns is more impactful
Listening to clients at work.
I went on a trip and met people not like me. I found a problem they have and solved it. I doubled down on the space and learned more about the industry and other problems I could solve within it.
I would stop “working on” problems and actually directly solve the problems.
Pick something you’re interested in or that’s a big enough problem, and work with someone who needs that problem fixed. Listen to what they need and what’s blocking their success, then solve it directly.
Get the testimonial, review what problems they had and how they self-identify. Tell other people with that identity that if they have that problem, you know how to solve it.
Then repeat. Listen to what they need and what’s blocking their success, then solve it directly.
Edit: you should be open to the advice you get when you ask reddit. It’s not too generic for you; you have no reference or starting point; you ARE generic. Listen.
My best ideas came from watching people hack together ugly workarounds, that’s where money hides.
Are you the guy? That is a big part of the equation.
My friend, this statement “find a problel everyone has and solve it to become a successful entrepreneur” is a complete BS.
This is absolutely not the right starting point.
I am another person who worked in my field for 5 years, so I was well aware of certain pain points.
If you want i do help businesses remove Boring Repititive task , so you can work on task which actually upgrades your business, by Automating them , Replying to emails as soon as someone reaches out , Picking up the call as someone calls you and at the lowest cost possible , shoot me a DM if interested.
They’re kinda everywhere you look bro.