The power of scratching your own itch
To build a successful product, you also have to USE it
The best business ideas usually come from a personal need.
Take Peter Rahal, the CEO and co-founder of RXBar, which he started in his parents’ basement with his best friend, Jared Smith.
An avid gym-goer, Rahal wanted a protein bar that didn’t taste like chalk or contain mysterious ingredients (hence the now-iconic product label).
As the RXBar website explains:
“It’s 2013, and we called B.S. on protein bars. CrossFit’s taking off. People are going paleo. We couldn’t believe there wasn’t a more nutritious protein bar out there. Maybe we were a little naïve, but we decided to stop talking and try to make it ourselves.”
That’s a perfect summary of scratching your own itch: noticing a problem and solving it — first for yourself, and then for like-minded customers.
Despite some serious competition from established brands, Rahal knew there was room for his protein bar. He couldn’t find what he wanted.
