How to Drive Startup Success by Solving Real Problems

We built the perfect product. Nobody wanted it. Ouch. That stings, right? But it's a pain many tech leaders know all too well. Our grand vision? Shattered. Our carefully crafted features? Crickets Yet in that moment of failure, we stumbled upon an unconventional (yet effective) approach to true product-market fit. Here's the unconventional playbook we wish we'd had from day one: 𝗕𝗲 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗽𝘂𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗿 Dive into customer struggles. Get your hands dirty. Pro tip: Shadow users like a ninja. 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝘁 Pitch your idea before writing a line of code. Create a landing page. Run ads. See who bites. 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 Forget page views. Focus on real user value. Track how people actually use your stuff. 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼-𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 Build WITH your audience, not just FOR them. Host workshops. Create user forums. Get messy together. 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗷𝗼𝗯𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 What are people really trying to do? Map customer journeys. Align your product to their goals. 𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧? - 42% of startups fail due to misalignment with market needs (CB Insights). - Pivoting strategically leads to 2.5x more funding and 3.6x faster user growth (Startup Genome) - Premature scaling without product-market fit increases failure rates by 70% (Startup Genome) So, pause. Reflect. Are you solving a real problem, or just adding to the noise? Slow down to speed up. Validate ruthlessly. Let the market guide you. What's one assumption about your market you haven't truly tested? How can you validate (or invalidate) it this week? Share your insights. 👇

Uri Levine is the co-founder of 10 companies, including Waze (which he sold to Google for $1.1B) and Moovit (which he sold to Intel for $1B). He’s also been on 20 different boards, including a dozen he’s still on, and has advised over 50 startups on all things product, growth, hiring, and M&A. Most recently, he's the author of "Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs" which was described by Steve Wozniak as the “Bible for entrepreneurs.” In our conversation, we cover: 🔸 Why falling in love with the problem is so important for entrepreneurs 🔸 The 3 phases of a startup, and what to focus on during each phase 🔸 Tactics for telling a compelling story when fundraising 🔸 Why firing is more important than hiring 🔸 How Waze iterated to achieve product-market fit 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gxWJb_Rg - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gDg4EmqF - Apple: https://lnkd.in/ge8uXpRJ Some key takeaways: 1. You need to “fall in love with the problem” that you’re solving. This is the biggest driver of startup success. It will help you deliver value to users, tell a more inspiring story about your company, and recruit a team. “Falling in love” means feeling enough passion about the problem that it can drive you to persist through hard times. 2. The ultimate measure of product-market fit is customer retention. If customers keep coming back, it indicates that your product or service is meeting their needs and providing value. Achieving product-market fit requires patience and iteration. With Waze, the team went through countless iterations, incorporating user feedback to improve the app. Uri stresses that you must “keep trying different things until you find the one thing that works.” 3. The first and last slides in a pitch deck are the most underused. They show onscreen the longest—while you get set up and while you take questions afterward—so they should contain your strongest point. Don’t waste this valuable real estate on showing your company name or “Thank you.” 4. Use the “30-day test” to maintain a high-performance team. Create a reminder to ask yourself this question 30 days after someone joins the team: “Knowing what I know today, would I hire this person?” If the answer is yes, tell the person you’re excited about them and give them more equity—you’ll gain a lot of loyalty. If the answer is no, you need to fire them immediately, to avoid the inevitable damage they will cause to you, your team, and themselves. 5. Watch users, especially those who use your product in unexpected ways. Different people use products differently, so observing a diverse range of users is key to building the right solution. Uri also advises focusing on those who didn’t convert to uncover barriers and points of friction.

92% of healthtech founders make the same mistake: They wait until their product is perfect before launching. Founders spend months building - refining features, fixing bugs, polishing UX. But when they finally launch? – No users – No feedback – No market pull Because they were optimizing for perfection - not market validation. The best founders don't wait to sell. They start before they're "ready." Here's the exact playbook that works: ▶︎ 1. Build your target list first Identify 100 specific people who feel your problem daily. Whether its a diagnostic tool or a workflow software, be as specific as you can. ▶︎ 2. Find them where they already socialise Join medical/health groups on LinkedIn, attend conferences, follow their publications. Don't cold email - engage with their content first. Comment thoughtfully on their posts about industry challenges. ▶︎ 3. Share one painful problem you've discovered each week Example - "I noticed ICU nurses spend 40% of their shift on documentation instead of patient care." Ask if others see this too. You'll get replies from people living this problem daily. ▶︎ 4. Turn conversations into 15-minute calls When someone engages, offer: "I'm exploring solutions to this exact problem - would you spare 15 minutes to share what you've tried?" Most say yes because you're asking for expertise, not selling. ▶︎ 5. Test demand before building Mock up a landing page. Show what the product might do. Then ask: “If this existed, would you pilot it for 30 days?” Real demand = budget, pilot interest, usage. Founders who do this aren’t waiting to get “fundable.” They’re testing their demand and product from day 1. Because your goal isn't to impress investors. It's to find 100 people who can't live without what you're building. So if you are still in the pre-launch stage, DM me what you’re building and I’ll send a few ways to test it fast. #entrepreneurship #startup #funding