The Physics of Startups with Rob Snyder The art of finding startup ideas that work
Aug 1, 2025
Explore the art of identifying startup ideas that truly resonate with customer needs. Learn how to navigate the complexities of demand and avoid common pitfalls. Discover the importance of robust customer engagement, including discovery interviews to validate your hypothesis. Understand the dynamic relationship between product development and customer priorities, and shift towards meaningful, experience-based retention. Enjoy real-life examples that highlight the essential criteria for successful startups in today's evolving market.
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Demand vs Pain Points
- Founders often seek pain points or underserved markets, but these don't guarantee real demand or product adoption.
- Demand means customers actively prioritize solving a problem and will pull a product to address it.
Find Unavoidable Projects
- Look for projects that customers must complete urgently and have poor existing solutions.
- Identify if customers are actively blocked and thus will pull your product out of necessity.
Plaid's Early Demand Story
- Plaid found its early customer in Venmo, who urgently needed bank integrations but couldn't build them fast enough.
- Venmo accepted Plaid's initial hacky product because they desperately needed the solution, pulling it out of their hands.