Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Lessons - Love The Problem, Not The Solution | Uri Levine - Author, Entrepreneur, and Disruptor

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Lessons - Love The Problem, Not The Solution | Uri Levine - Author, Entrepreneur, and Disruptor · Success Story with Scott Clary

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  In this lessons episode, you will discover powerful insights on navigating startup failures
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  and finding true purpose in entrepreneurship. We explore how identifying a real problem and
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  staying committed to it can create a roadmap for success, even when facing setbacks.
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  Learn how to assess when it's time to pivot or let go and why falling in love with the problem,
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  not the solution is key to building lasting impact.
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  And let's ask you something about about failures because you mentioned something very important
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  failing fast. So in that in that startup that failed, how did you know when it was time to
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  call it? How do you fail fast? How did you fail fast? So let's separate between
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  shutting down a company and failures or errors or mistakes throughout the journey.
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  Because the journey is very important in the sense that you have everything that you would
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  have in your roadmap. For me, it's a list of experiments that you're going to conduct and you
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  will try with the first one that you think that is going to work and you will end with the first
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  one that is actually working. There is a nice story that I heard about LinkedIn. I don't know how
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  it is but for a second I would say let's assume for a second that it's true and if it's not true,
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  then assume that it is true for the sake of the discussion. When LinkedIn started, they actually
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  had 30 features that they wanted to develop and they basically said this is the minimum product
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  and when they started to meet investors, everyone told them that 30 features is way too long and
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  they need to reduce that list to less than that and they ended up with a list of 10 features that
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  they said this is we cannot even launch the product without those 10 features. Obviously,
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  LinkedIn started and eventually they were becoming public and then acquired by Microsoft and then
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  becoming public again but the first time that they went public, how many of those 10 features
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  they actually developed? And the answer is one, just one. So in that sense, they were lucky that
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  they figure out the first feature that they need to develop at the beginning. I don't know how
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  true this story is but for the sake of the discussions, let's assume that it is.
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  The roadmap is eventually a list of features that you are going to develop.
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  In each one of them has an objective to figure out product market fit and if they do, then
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  the product development is done and if they're not, then you try another one.
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  And that is the important part of the failures. So you don't stick with something that doesn't
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  work. You keep on trying, you keep on trying different things. For the question, when do you know
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  that it's time to shut down a company? Well, you eventually fall in love with the problem
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  and once you start to build your team, this is your mission in life. You will never give up and
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  never giving up. Reservance is the most important behavior for an entrepreneur. Not necessarily
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  of a CEO, but for an entrepreneur, they don't give up. And if you would ask me, how do you know
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  that it's time to give up? So number one, you never know. You don't know. Number two, I would add
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  my advice that is basically saying, look, if one of the two following is happened, then you should
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  give up. One is that the problem disappears. The first startup that we started in year 2000,
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  it called Access Mobile and what we tried to do is actually provide an email access through
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  WAP phones, right? So very, very long time ago. And the problem disappeared as soon as Blackberry
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  started, right? So there was sort of a very different approach for the solution, which made our
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  solution irrelevant. And to a certain extent, I would say the problem disappeared. So if problem
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  disappears, you should quit. The other reason is if the team is not right and you're unable to
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  change it. If you are the CEO, then you should be able in a position to change that, but in many
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  cases, you don't. And then you end up with a place that might have the right mission, but not the
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  right BNA. And you don't want to stay in a place like that. So this is time to shut it down.
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  These are the only two reasons that I can figure out why you should quit. And in general, I would
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  say look at entrepreneurs, they don't keep up. I know that's something. So I think that what I value
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  that lesson so much because the concept of never giving up, it does conflict with the concept of
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  of failing quickly. So it's good to have an understanding of what your organization is growing into
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  what you're, again, the problem you're trying to solve is it's still there. And then the other
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  point you mentioned the right people, but let's talk about, let's talk about the problem, right? I
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  mean, you wrote a book. So you wrote, you know, I would say like, yeah, and I'm, I'm, I'm stopping you
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  for a second. Okay. Yeah. Single is the sole right. When you go into this journey, there is a problem
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  that you're trying to address, right? And, and this is becoming your mission, right? So for a second,
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  I would say if the mission is right and the team is right, then you shouldn't give up. If one of
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  them is going away, then you should start to consider if both of them, then definitely you should
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  consider a token of giving up. But the, the journey of failures is not about the essence of the
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  startup. The essence of the startup is about the problem that trying to solve the value that they
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  are about to create. And it's about the way to get there. And the way to get there is a journey of
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  failure. Understood. I understand. Okay. I want to understand the, the title of the book that you
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  wrote, fallen love with the problem, not the solution. So we're, we're dancing around this now,
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  but speak to me about what it means to truly fall in love with the problem. What problem did you
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  fall in love with when you built ways? I hate traffic chips. It's a good one. It's because you know,
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  end of the day, I, and I'm pretty sure that you have, have met many entrepreneurs. They all
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  have a starting point that has, that touched them on a personal level, right? And, and not all,
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  but most of them. And in many cases, this is about frustration. So you're running to something and
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  you ended up being frustrated and then you tell yourselves, no, no, no, this is something that I
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  am going to change. There is no way that this is how it works. And this is the key driver for most
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  of my startups is running into situations that they tell myself, wait a minute, am I the only one
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  that is getting frustrated because of that? And then you start to discuss that with or speak with
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  other people until you realize that this problem is real or at least the perception of the problem
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  is real. And so for me, you know, the journey is always about starting with a problem. So finding
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  a problem, a big problem, something that it's worth solving, something that the world will become
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  a better place if we solve that. And then the next thing that you really would like to do is ask
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  yourself, so who has this problem? Now, if you happen to be the only person on the planet
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  with this problem, then I would say, go to a shrink. It's much cheaper than building a startup.
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  But if a lot of people actually have this problem, then go and speak with those people and understand
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  their perception of the problem and only then build a solution. Now, if you follow this path
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  and your solution works, it's guaranteed that you're creating value. If you start with a solution,
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  you might be building something but nothing that no one cares. And that's really not a good idea.
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  So when I say falling in love with the problem, what it really means is start with the problem,
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  but there is way more into that. The problem then remains the north star of your entire journey.
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  And every day you're asking yourself, if I'm making a progress towards addressing this problem.
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  And so if the problem was for way down, the reason that we start is that we hate traffic jams.
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  We evolved that into a mission to help drivers to avoid traffic jams. Because the solution for
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  the problem is very easy, avoiding the problem, right? So getting rid of the problem, problem
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  disappears or we are avoiding that or overcome that. And that makes it easy. As long as you
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  cheap that as the north star of your company, then you increase the likelihood of being successful.
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  And you increased the likelihood by basically saying, I know where I'm going. I don't know what's
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  the next step or I do know what's the next step, but I have no idea what's the step after next,
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  but I know where I'm going. The other part of it is that it makes your story so much easier to be told
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  that your marketing is becoming easier. Your fundraising is becoming easier.
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  Everything is creating or the entire story is much easier. Because if I will tell you,
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  you know, I'll have a time machine. We will roll back in 2007. And I will come into this
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  podcast. Well, that podcast wasn't here. I think in 2000. It wasn't. But I get the point.
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  But that assumed that we are. And I will tell you, I'm building an AI crowdsource navigation system
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  then you don't really care. But if I will tell you, I'm helping you to avoid traffic jams and
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  all of a sudden you do care. And so the story is easier to be told. And usually story,
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  you know, when you tell a story about the problem, then there is an emotional engagement for many
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  of the people in particular, if they have experienced similar problem or the same problem.
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  So falling in love with the problem, essentially, increase your likelihood of being successful,
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  increase the likelihood of becoming a market leader through two main things, right? The North Star
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  and therefore the mission of the companies is is clearer and easier and remains the
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  same throughout the entire journey. And the story that tells is much easier. Thanks for tuning in.
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  episode. And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description
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  to watch the full episode. See you in the next one.