A short advice monologue by James Sinclair advising startup founders to "solve one problem for one person" — ideally a problem the founder themselves experiences. He argues being 'customer number one' makes it easier to be passionate, understand product-market fit, and drive value because personal experience fuels obsession and insight about whom you're building for.
Chapters
As a startup founder, there's kind of the adage of solve one problem for one person really well, and there's probably a million other people that are experiencing that problem. And I think as you're exploring kind of the business you're building, one of the things that's great to look at is what problems have you encountered, what challenges, what issues in your everyday life. It is so much easier to be passionate and excited and to drive value when you are customer number one, when you are kind of the recipient of the mvp, when you understand PMF because you've experienced the problem. And so I think as you're starting this journey, it's important to wonder, why are you building or who are you building for? Are you building a solution because you see an opportunity in the market for someone else, or are you building a solution that you want, that you need, that you could see value for because that will drive your kind of obsession into the market when you are customer number one. Good luck.