Digging for Fool’s Gold (…And Other Stories of How to Hit a Dead End)
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A common piece of startup advice for founders is to find pain points and solve them. More specifically, “morphine” level pain points. Problems that are so severe, that your potential customers are begging you to create a solution.
If you describe your product to a potential customer and they respond, “Hmm... If that existed I’d probably use it.” That’s not a morphine problem. If you describe it and they say, “I swear to God, if you can solve that for me, I will pay you whatever it costs. I’ll carry you on my shoulders through the street screaming your praises.” That’s a morphine problem.
Every industry on the face of the earth has these. Doesn’t matter how large or small, how old or new the industry is, you will stumble upon morphine problems if you start digging.
When you find one of these golden nuggets, you’ll think you discovered a goldmine. You’ll furiously search Google for existing solutions, competitors, news articles… You’ll wonder briefly why the gold nugget was sitting on the surface and no one had picked it up, but rather than waste time with thoughts like that, you’ll jump into spreadsheets to plot out potential growth or revenue. Maybe you’ll jump into the Lean Startup Canvas and prep some customer interviews. You wonder if replying to Sam Altman enough on Twitter will increase your chances of getting into Y Combinator.
The more people you talk to, the more it reaffirms that there is indeed a morphine problem. You get giddy at the idea that maybe this truly is a goldmine. You notice it’s a little curious that it’s not one person, but many across this industry who all seem to have the same exact problem. It also seems to be somewhat well known among them, not some closely held secret. It strikes you as odd that no one has solved this and all your research turned up very little solution wise. It feels like a blue ocean. You glance back at your gold nugget and notice it doesn’t seem as perfect for some reason. However, you know in your heart and head its gold and you have convinced yourself that you discovered a new gold mine. So screw it, it’s time start digging!
(Before you chime in, “Don’t you pan for gold?”. Nope, most gold production comes from mines.)
You recruit your friend to co-own the mine with you. He does the same research you did and has no doubt, “there’s gold in them hills!” (Plus, he is the only Mining Engineer you know who will work for equity.) You lease equipment from Amazon Gold Mining Services (AGMS) and get to it. You dig and dig and drill and drill. You mine as quickly as you can. Obviously, you found the perfect spot to drill on the first try, because that’s how mining works right? Suddenly you hit something! Oh my god, this must be a huge vein of gold! You climb down and notice it’s not shiny at all. It’s jet black and somber looking. It’s a casket. Inside is a startup named GigaPing. You recognize the CamelCase lettering. It’s a failed Web 2.0 startup that shut down in 2010. They appear to have built the same thing you are building. Hmmm… From what you can gather of an old TechCrunch article, it had everything except that one key feature that you plan to build and because features are SUPER DUPER critical to success, and you’re certain you “know” why they failed. Silly gooses. Plus, they didn’t know about “blitzscaling” back then, so they never had a chance. You get back to digging, even more sure that this is a sign that gold is just a little farther. You remember to reply to all Marc Andreessen’s tweets for a week, just in case you’ll need to skip the seed and go right into the A round. Again, another crashing halt to the digging as you strike again. You grab your friend and you both climb down, since you’ll want to share in the discovery moment together. Fuck. Another casket. You pry it open. It’s a failed startup named Information.ly. You think, “This was obviously from 2013. Whoa… That wasn’t long ago…” You struggle to find much information online. It appears they bootstrapped it, because there isn’t any tech media coverage. From the Internet Archive you can see most of their home and about page. You can’t believe how similar it was to what you are trying to build. They even had that one key feature! It’s obvious that it failed because it was bootstrapped, right? Plus, it all about execution! …And I know I can execute better than these people whom I have never met and have no clue about their background, experience, work ethic, intelligence, capital, or connections. You loudly declare, “Nicola Tesla remained celibate his entire life to focus all waking hours on work…. I bet I can do that too… I bet Information.ly wasn’t willing to go that far!” You triumphantly clench your fist around the original gold nugget you found. Ouch! Its sharp edges cut your hand slightly. You have never really stepped back for a second and taken a close look at the nugget. You mutter, “Weird, I don’t remember gold having sharp edges….” Upon returning to the office, your mine co-owner walks over to you. He’s holding his laptop and on it is a picture of something that looks just like your gold nugget. He seems perplexed by something he discovered on the Wikipedia entry for Gold in the “See Also” section. He pauses… “Have you ever heard of this thing called Pyrite?”
Now onto Part #2 and my own experience of mining for pyrite.
Part #2 — My Own Gold Mining Disaster
Part #3 — When Striking Gold Too Early Sets You Up For Failure
Part #4 — Beware The Person Who Tells You, “There’s Gold In Them Hills!”
Part #5 — How to Recognize a Gold Mine vs a Dead End
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This article was written from scratch and published the same day as part of a 31 day writing challenge. To follow me on Medium through this writing challenge, go here:https://medium.com/the-writing-challenge
