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independence3 unconnected · 1 more author in those circles
applies to

b2b and consumer, no audience needed

confidence

high

evidence

14 claims · 14 articles · 4 receipts

window

2014-06-09 → 2024-01-18

3 builders who never spoke to each other

Act on the complaint that keeps recurring

Repetition across different people is the signal, not how loudly any one person says it, so track down whoever already pays for something comparable or grinds through the job by hand. A tolerated absurd process is stored-up demand, and a pain nobody is spending on is not a business however real it feels.

The method

  1. 01

    Act only on the complaint you hear repeatedly from different people; the repetition is the signal, not the intensity of any single one.

  2. 02

    Require three signals before you build: people want it badly, they are already spending time or money attacking the problem, and they dislike what they currently use.

  3. 03

    Test an idea by asking who would queue up for it today with money in hand, then how many such people exist, and what has to happen in the wider market for demand to spread.

  4. 04

    Research a shortlisted idea by tracking down the people who already pay for something comparable, or who grind through the same job manually today.

  5. 05

    Make something people are already desperate for, since demand multiplies whatever marketing you do rather than adding to it.

What it returned

  • Patrick Collison found accepting payments online overwhelming and needlessly complicated every time he tried, and built Stripe on that gap.

  • Where a category does not yet exist, look for a group visibly cobbling together their own workaround, as Feedback Panda's customers were.

  • Justin adopts these three screening questions from Andreessen Horowitz and adds a fourth: what current behaviour backs it up.

  • Justin's adaptation of Derek Sivers' formula: a product people badly want multiplied by smart marketing.

Sources

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click, and the address is used for this and nothing else.

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the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

963 corroborated plays to draw from · 3 a week

One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click, and the address is used for this and nothing else.