Solve Real Problems
On entrepreneurial purpose, the trap of thinking too big, and the question that might matter more than your business plan.
After making profitability our theme in 2019, we wanted to go deeper. If building a business on your own terms is the âhow,â then #SolveRealProblems was about the âwhat.â We wanted founders to think more carefully about the problems they spend their time on - not bigger problems necessarily, but the right ones.
Most entrepreneurs, in my experience, donât spend enough time thinking about which problem theyâre actually pointing their time at.
The question isnât about size, or someone elseâs definition of âimpactful.â Itâs more personal: is this worth your time? Thatâs the more honest question, and I find most founders skip it entirely.
The Paralysis of âReal Problemsâ
Thereâs a risk in calling on entrepreneurs to solve âreal problems.â It can have a paralyzing effect.
âIâm not working on a Real Problem.â âThis problem is too big for me.â âMy startup just makes scheduling easier - thatâs not exactly saving the world.â
I get it. But I think that framing misses the point.
Real problems donât have a minimum size. The small ones are worth solving too. In fact, thatâs how most entrepreneurial journeys actually begin. Step by step. Growing over time. A tool that makes one personâs day slightly less miserable might turn out to be the foundation for something that changes an industry.
Youâre not only a âgoodâ entrepreneur if your mission is to solve world hunger. Solving real problems applies to all organizations - including, and especially, the ones that are doing something that doesnât look dramatic from the outside.
Doing good and doing well can go hand in hand. They often do, for the companies that last.
The Question Worth Asking
But thereâs a version of the question that cuts to the core:
Is this - for me - a problem worth solving?
Itâs not a question for investors or trend reports. Itâs one you have to answer yourself.
Is this worth spending my time on?
In my experience, itâs one of the more clarifying questions a founder can sit with. Especially if you care about your time and your impact. Startups take longer than you think. They take more out of you than you expect. And youâll spend a significant portion of your life with the problem you choose.
The wrong answer tends to surface around year 3, when youâre exhausted and asking yourself why you started. Thatâs a bad moment for the question to first appear.
Context Changes Everything
What counts as a ârealâ problem is deeply context-specific.
The problems being solved in Silicon Valley are often not real problems in Nairobi or Dhaka or MedellĂn. And vice versa. A MedTech solution designed for sub-Saharan Africa might look nothing like one designed for Western Europe. Both can be profoundly important. Neither can be dismissed because it doesnât fit someone elseâs framework.
This is something Iâve seen over and over while traveling to startup ecosystems around the world - from Tirana to New York to Riga to Cairo. The entrepreneurs there arenât building the next social media app. Theyâre solving problems that are invisible to most Western investors. Logistics in places without reliable infrastructure. Healthcare in places without enough doctors. Education in places where a smartphone is more accessible than a school.
Those are real problems. They donât get TechCrunch coverage. They deserve recognition.
And some problems donât look like problems at all until you see them from the right angle. You might think âIâm building a gaming startup, how could this solve a real problem?â But it can. Games teach, connect, rehabilitate, train, and shift perspectives. Itâs your chance to demonstrate that what you do has meaning in a broader context.
An Inner Compass
In the end, solving real problems is about having an inner compass and holding yourself accountable to it.
The compass isnât set by investors, or social media, or the latest trend in what counts as âimpact.â Itâs set by your honest assessment of whether the problem youâve chosen is worth the years youâll pour into it.
The entrepreneurs who tend to get this right didnât start by trying to save the world. They started by noticing something broken in their immediate reality. Something that bothered them personally. Something they couldnât stop thinking about.
And they gave themselves permission to work on it, even when it seemed too small to matter.
That permission, in my experience, is where most of the good work begins.
#SolveRealProblems was the theme of PIRATE Summit 2020. It followed #intheblack in 2019 and was followed by #RaiseYourSails in 2021.
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Be kind,
Manuel