The 4.5% Success Story: Lessons From 70+ Projects

"📉 >95% of everything I ever did failed."

📈 My hit rate is only about ~5%

The founder of Nomadlist and Remoteok tweeted this, concluding with: "Ship...more" – advice for all founders to keep launching projects until the right one is found.

I interpret his experience quite differently: through his journey, he was dedicating himself to solving a unique problem in most of his projects. After multiple attempts and different approaches to understanding this problem, he eventually succeeded. And here is why: he finally grasped the problem in its entirety.

Most of those who succeed in the startup world often talk about the fact that it takes an average of ten failures to find the right idea.



Fortunately, this is not a fatality. Far from it.

Understand the problem to solve it

Most entrepreneurs face difficulties when starting their first startups, as they try to solve problems they don't understand well. They want to solve problems they haven't experienced enough, which limits their understanding and ability to find a solution. It is not enough to understand what a potential user (you) would need, this is superficial, and it is necessary to understand the problem structurally—This involves opening up to different reflections: why is the problem? What could explain why it exists? How is it presented and what does it involve?

Brian Chesky started tackling the hosting problem when he was a student and couldn't afford permanent housing. Initially, he tried to solve it by providing sleeping spaces for visitors to the city, but this didn't work. It was only after working on various hosting-related projects that Chesky eventually succeeded with Airbnb. Similarly, for Evan Williams, it all began with a business venture that aimed to enable people to publish online without coding knowledge. After this failed, he realized the real challenge was helping people find and connect with relevant content on the internet. This gave rise to Blogger, which was eventually sold to Google, to Twitter and later to Medium, where Williams continued to pursue the same goal of connecting people with relevant content.

Find ideas on your area of expertise.

Choosing a startup involves selecting a problem to solve. People often choose problems they can't solve due to lack of capacity or expertise. Launching a startup in an area where you have limited or no expertise is not easy. It takes time and experience to gain the necessary knowledge. Why not take advantage of your expertise and start a business in your field? You would be well-positioned to identify and resolve issues as effectively as possible.

Start with a problem you've personally encountered and understand ideally one that you're in an unusual position to see.

Have you been in a unique position to identify problems or opportunities through your professional or personal experience? These are great places to begin searching for startup ideas. Take advantage of your experience to come up with ideas. This approach is highly effective, as the ideas that you generate this way have a much higher chance of being successful given your experience of the problem.

Furthermore, it saves you time and energy, since you are tapping into your existing knowledge and expertise to come up with ideas, rather than starting from scratch.

Conclusion

The founders we have discussed have acquired a deep understanding of the complexities of problem-solving through years of trial and error and continued exploration. This highlights the importance of gaining a comprehensive understanding of a situation to be successful in the entrepreneurial world. It is not enough to simply recognize and identify a problem; it must be fully comprehended to effectively address it.

Fortunately, it is not necessary to go through the same lengthy process of experimentation as the founders we have mentioned. It is possible to take one's time to learn and gain a better understanding before venturing into the startup world. This is one of humanity's great advantages: the knowledge gained through experience can be shared.

Thank you for taking the time to read us.

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Each week we tackle questions about software product business, how and why a software product can succeed, giving you a better way to think of product business validation, and how to make informed decisions about which ideas are worth pursuing.