Indie Hackers #159 – Storytelling, COVID-19, and Viral Startup Growth with Tomas Pueyo of Course Hero
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Apr 24, 2020 Tomas Pueyo, author of the mega-viral article 'Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now,' and VP of Growth at Course Hero, discusses the universal structure of stories, the importance of starting with the problem, empowering customers through storytelling in marketing, understanding customer problems with examples from Wave and Coursera, and the context, impact, and factors contributing to the success of his viral article on COVID-19.
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Stories Are Problem-Solving Machines
- Stories work as problem-solving devices with a three-part arc: problem, key insight, and resolution.
- Tomas says this ring structure recurs at work, scene, product, and pitch levels and guides understanding.
Begin Roadmaps With Problems, Not Features
- When deciding what to build, start by deeply understanding the problem before generating features.
- Use problem prioritization (impact, confidence, cost) to choose which solutions to test.
Why Story Structure Feels Natural
- Humans evolved to learn by hearing problems first then solutions, which makes story structure deeply persuasive.
- Tomas links language and storytelling to low-cost, high-value social learning across generations.