The Greg McKeown Podcast

167. How to Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution with Uri Levine (Part 1)

Feb 2, 2023

Uri Levine, co-founder of Waze, shares his entrepreneurial insights, emphasizing the need to fall in love with the problem rather than the solution. He details the inspiration behind Waze and how personal frustrations led to an innovative navigation app. Levine discusses the critical startup journey, highlighting the importance of learning from failures and engaging users to identify real issues. He critiques superficial metrics and advocates for a deeper understanding of customer needs to drive product success and enhance user loyalty.

33:46

Episode guests

Uri Levine

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Intro

2min

The Birth of Waze: From Frustration to Innovation

2min

Navigating the Startup Roller Coaster

9min

Navigating the Research Iteration in Entrepreneurship

12min

Engaging Users to Identify the Right Problem

4min

Many entrepreneurs fall in love with their products, services, their ideas, but according to my guest today, this is wrong. What Uri Levine argues is that you have to fall in love with the problem, not the solution. Uri is a passionate entrepreneur. Unicorns, which are companies that reach valuation of more than a billion dollars, are rare, but Uri has built two. He is the co-founder of Waze, the world's largest community-based driving traffic navigation app with more than 700 million users to date in which Google acquired for more than a billion dollars. In our conversation today and next week, he reveals the formula that drove these companies to compete with industry veterans and giants alike. By the end of this episode, you'll be able to be more relevant and valuable to your customers than your competitors.

Learn more about Uri here: https://urilevine.com/

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