“I scratched my own itch” isn’t good enough

I wrote a book! Click for details.

Subscribe

By Jason Cohen on

March 2, 2025

Reading time: 9 min

ePub (Kindle)

Printable PDF

“I scratched my own itch” isn’t good enough

by Jason Cohen on March 2, 2025

The most common single-line origin story:

“I had the problem myself, so I built a product.”

This is the standard defense mounted by new founders to justify their new ventures. But is it justified?

For a company to succeed, many conditions must be true⁠—or true enough that they’re not fatal. Those things can be formulated as a series of risks to be mitigated or as a list of blunders to avoid or as a list of questions you have to answer. Regardless of form, a market must exist, at an acceptable price , matching customers’ willingness and ability to buy.

Often left out of these lists is you. The company has to be right for you, personally. The simplest test is to ask:

Why are you the right person to start and grow this company?

Which brings us back to the original claim. You are the right person, because you had the problem, you were struck with a vision of how to solve it better than the alternatives, and you did.

Sounds good, but is it? Here’s what you are implying by that statement:

I understand the problem.

I have an attachment and passion for the problem.

I know how to solve it.

I have the ability to execute it.

I understand my customers (because I am one).

Others have this problem, and will choose my solution.

I have what it takes.

The worst part is, some of those are true! Intermittent reinforcement is the strongest mechanism for conditioning. That makes it problematic: Because some are true, you can’t see why some are false.

This blindness consistently results in failure. It is possible that most startups begin this way; it is definite that most of those startups fail.

Look! Smart people agree:

“Our customers did a lot of stuff that I would never do. We think differently. We solve our problems differently. We have different needs and wants. Repeat after me: You are not your customer.”

⁠—<br>Eric Ries, creator of The Lean Startup

“Be a user of your own product. Make it better based on your own desires. But don’t trick yourself into thinking you are your user.”

⁠—<br>Evan Williams, founder of Blogger & Twitter

“If the VP of Engineering thinks the target customer is just like him/her, you’re doomed. If the VP of Marketing thinks the target customer is just like him/her, you’re doomed.”

⁠—<br>Cranky Product Manager

Let’s pick apart the seven implications to see how to leverage “I had the problem myself” as a springboard, instead of following the usual glide-slope to demise.

source

1. I understand the problem.

You do. At least, you understand your version of the problem. The world is large, and getting 1000 customers means solving a variety of related problems, even if you’re targeting one niche.

Sometimes you really do have this broader understanding. Maybe you’re a consultant and you’ve seen 13 variants of this problem. Or you’ve been engineer in this field for ten years at three different companies and you’ve seen everything. Or you’ve researched this for years as a passion. (Although, being an “expert” is another form of blindness.)

Either way, you’re off to a great start, but you need to view “the problem” through your customers’ eyes. They might see the same problem but use different language.1 They might have the same type of problem but it appears in four distinct forms,2 so you need to either pick some to solve, or use features and language to show how you address all four. They might need to integrate with systems you haven’t head of. Their budget might be th or 10x larger than yours was.

For example, Discord used to say “get a free community space,” but it turned out that kids were accustomed to “setting up servers,” therefore it made more sense for them to say “get a free chat server.” Their community spaces are called “servers” to this day.

For example, you’ve noticed that product on-boarding is a common pain-point. But Enterprise products require multi-phase, white-glove processes and training sessions, whereas small businesses might need templates and ready-access to tech support, whereas consumer products might need better self-service options and wizards.

Treat this initial understanding as a starting point rather than the end-point, and interview customers purposefully to get the full answer.

2. I have an attachment and passion for the problem.

This one is very likely to be true. You cared enough to investigate the problem and derived satisfaction from solving it. You were drawn to both problem and solution. It ticks several personal boxes, which explains why it’s such a common startup origin story. I believe you.

Passion is required, because it gets you through the hard times. The pain of constant rejection⁠—potential customers not buying, potential hires not accepting, potential investors not investing,...