There’s much to like about this post by entrepreneur David Sacks. Titled ‘Your startup is a movement’, draws comparisons between successful startups and successful political campaigns – having been written around the time of the 2020 USA presidential election campaign.
One section that’s stayed with me, though, is articulating the problem. This part hit home:
Many founders are like bad politicians — they are “policy wonks.” They just want to talk about their features. I’ve got news for you: Nobody cares about your features. At least not yet. First people need to understand the problem you’re solving. Then they need to understand your solution. Only then will they be interested in your features.
I’ve been guilty of this more often than not – and not always in the context of startups. Because I’ve understood the problem landscape, I think that merely describing a solution will make its merits and demerits self-evident to someone who’s given this a lot less mindspace – which is all my prospective customers.
Finally, my rational mind rebels against this even as my common sense knows this to be true:
As marketing guru Christopher Lochhead has pointed out, if you speak more articulately about the problem than anyone else, people will assume you have the solution.