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Founders: Have you even Googled the problem you're trying to solve?

Name: Founders: Have you even Googled the problem you're trying to solve?
Uploaded: 2017-03-27T21:08:43+00:00
Duration: 1 min 45 s
Channel: Bob London
Description: In this short advisory talk, Bob London urges founders and entrepreneurs to stop falling in love with their own solution and instead fall in love with…

27 Mar 2017 · 2 min

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1:45

In this short advisory talk, Bob London urges founders and entrepreneurs to stop falling in love with their own solution and instead fall in love with the problem their customers face. He observes that many founders describe their positioning and differentiation only from their own viewpoint and claim there is no competition. London challenges this by asking the critical question: how are customers currently solving the problem? He demonstrates a practical method—simply Googling the problem or the type of solution customers might seek—to uncover a landscape of competitors, substitutes, and alternatives (CSAs). By doing so, founders gain a customer‑centric view of the market, understand existing solutions (including DIY or in‑house approaches), and can more credibly discuss the space with investors or boards. While not implying a flawed business, neglecting this research leaves founders unaware of the true competitive environment.

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Morning everybody. My favorite expression of the last, I'd say, few months is, "Don't fall in love with your solution, fall in love with their problem, then you can come up with the right solution." I don't know who authored that quote, but it's— I think it's quite brilliant. The reason I'm bringing it up today is because I meet with lots of companies, founders, CEOs, business owners from student entrepreneurs at the University of Maryland Dingman Center to seasoned entrepreneurs and business owners. When I ask them about their positioning and their differentiators, they talk about that sometimes too much from their perspective. And I'll ask about competition, and again, from their perspective, in many cases they'll say, "Well, no one's doing this." Well, that's not the question, is anyone doing this? The question is, how are others solving the problem, or how are customers solving this problem today? So what I do is I'll say, "Hey, let's just Google it together. Let's see what we find." Let's Google the problem, or let's Google the type of solution that customers might be looking for. And lo and behold, there are a lot of CSAs— competitors, substitutes, and alternatives— out there. It's just stunning to me that folks haven't Googled the problem they're trying to solve. Doesn't mean their business is flawed, but doesn't mean the idea is flawed. But out of respect to the investors or the board, you better know what people are doing to solve this problem today, whether it's the customer doing it themselves, doing it in-house, or other solutions that maybe some solve the problem in a different way, you don't think much of it. But the point is, if you don't do that Google search, you're not going to see what the landscape looks like from the customer's perspective. That's all for now. I'll keep you posted.