rmATinnovafy

I'm glad you are writing the book. It seems like a worthy addition to my bookshelf. Will you be blogging about specifics mentioned in the book?

It may seemed like I was trying to debate your point, but I agreed from the start. Now that my hands are free to do so, I wanted to let you know.

Would you be willing to expand your original post? It was rather short in nature.

Also, mind sharing an email? Mine is on my profile.

The difference about solving a problem and filling a need is pretty simple. You don't profit by solving a problem. You profit by filling a need.

Problems inside industries may not have profits hidden inside. But needs, everyone always has money to solve their needs. Your job is to find those needs and engineer a product that fills it.

Edit

--Added this part from my workstation. The text above was from my phone (makes it harder to type in detail).--

Everyone will always have problems. You solve one, two more pop up. The very nature of problems make people be wary of any solution that aims to solve them. And to be frank, a lot of people dont even want to solve their problems. Businesses also share this.

Now needs. Well needs are something entirely different. Needs are wants. What people want, they pay to get. Your job in a business is to find those needs, and give the need what it wants. In software, a need may be to save them money on their accounting. Why is this a need? Maybe the business owner wants to buy a new car, and he/she needs the money to get that new car. There is no problem to solve. Their accounting might not need to be solved. But the owner has a need for money to buy the car.

Find those needs. They are the key to profits.

Note: You posted below before I edited the post.

BTW, update me on how it goes. Email in profile.

Also, a startup does not aim to solve a problem in an industry. That is a common but rather poor approach. A startup aims to profit by filling a need in a given marketplace. Two different things altogether.

As someone who is losing sleep over the same issue, I appreaciate the fact that you understand it. I never get why so many startups focus on the minor things when the sales funnel is the most important part of the deal. Seems like people are just doing startups because its IN. Not because they want to build a profitable business.

Maybe the CEO got a not so gentle nudge from the investors to hurry up and hire somebody and you were the one they were interviewing next. Stuff like that happens a lot. The process is more about outside factors than the actual interviewing process itself.

I do think that this problem is up there with world peace.

Sadly, I don't use Paypal. You can make a donation to your local hackerspace with the $100 that you will soon lose.

Good luck.

PS. Have you ever asked the people you have interviewed what they think about the process?

I have $100 here that says most won't (if any).

* If we can't hire people due to a broken system, how do we expect to succeed?

You should really email your customers and prospects. But don't just send them a boring borchure. Approach them in a personal way. Ask them what is bugging them at the moment? Offer to help. Give them some love in the form of an email.

I've been emailing people from HN for about a month. Everyone responds. They all just keep the conversation going as if we were old friends. Some even go out of their way to help me build my startup.

How do I do it? I really care about them. Every time I contact somebody, it is because I think they are someone worth knowing. Not for networking connections, but as a person.

Treat your customers in the same way. Talk to them. Be friendly. I know this is hard for some people to do. It used to be so hard for me to do it. But I realized that people want to deal with those who relate to them. In fact, thats my biggest marketing weapon: I focus on making a connection with people. To really interest myself in their dealings. The sales just happen by themselves after that.

Note: This does sound like a lot of self-help books. I know. And it doesn't work with everybody, because not everybody likes you. But it works with a lot of people. I'd rather be mistaken for a friendly fool, than for an arrogant know-it-all.

Do a quick exercise. Click on the usernames in this thread. Find someone who posts their email on their profile. Send them a message with the title: "Just saying hello from HN". Inside, say hello, and ask them what they have been up to. Everyone will answer. Everyone.