A founder built a gesture-detection iTunes app that impressed technically but solved nothing real. Paul Graham kept asking if they had an actual problem to solve, teaching them that cool technology without genuine user need is just technology looking for a problem.
One of the hardest lessons that entrepreneurs ignore and don't learn is to solve a problem. And that's because we're all nerds at the core, and we as nerds love sexy and cool and futuristic stuff, and we want to live in a future. So we— our previous company was gesture detection over webcam, which was really, really cool, really sexy. The idea was that, hey, instead of having turning your finger or hand into a mouse, if you want to mute something, let's say this chat or a TV, why can't I just shush it? So So we built this iTunes app that allowed the users to control a bunch of like gestures, just using gestures. And it was great. It was hugely successful. But we were part of YC back then. And Paul Graham— this is 2012— Paul Graham was still there. And he would come to us and he would look at us and he says, oh, I know you guys. You guys are technology looking for a problem to solve. Have you found one yet? And he would say that again and again. And that was one of the hardest lessons we learned along the way.
