The Physics of Startups
00:00:00 · S0
[00:00:00] S0: Hey Rob, how's it going, man? What's up? Well, we are here with a special episode. Uh we uh what we told everybody a while ago to submit questions and stuff on YouTube, and they did it, and I just like failed to get up to speed and like bring those questions uh to you to have a conversation about them. There's some really good ones. So uh this is gonna be kind of like a virtual AMA that we're just gonna crowdsource from the comments. Folks, if y'all have things that you want Rob to respond to or like questions that are on your mind, drop it in the comments on this or on any episode. I do read all of those. And so uh from time to time, I'm gonna try to do this more frequently so that we're getting, you know, we we take on kind of the the big topics every week, but we should also be hitting these kind of things that y'all are wrestling with tactically or questions or follow-ups, things that I don't explain well, things that Rob uh it would be useful to hear Rob explain. Um so we'll hit a couple of these. Um one is, or we'll hit two from uh the episode Choosing Your ICP is buying optional. The first one uh comes from somebody that used a clip the icon. It was just like a series of random letters and and uh numbers. Um so their comment is question about use available options. Does this mean that there are absolutely no options on the market for that? Or is it simply from the buyer's mind that they are not aware of that option, uh, which is a marketing problem? Um so Rob, do you have a reaction on like in general, if you're a founder and you're participating in a space that does have other options, um, is you know, what do you do with mandatory? How do you make it weird not to buy? Like, what's you know, what are your reactions there?
00:01:37 · Rob Snyder
[00:01:37] S1: Yeah, first I didn't realize people actually paid attention to this. I didn't realize we put this out there. Um It might be bots. Yeah, it could be. Um good good questions from the bots. Uh so not a good way to answer this question, but um it's gonna really depend, right? Like if they don't know, I I see we have a question about workday later, right? Like if they don't know that workday exists as an option, it's a it's a fact that they're not aware of workday as an option, they're an idiot, right? And so, um, and so you don't wanna just basically find people who are idiots. And and so, right, you could maybe find one customer that way, you could find a couple customers that way, but you're not gonna build a business on on sort of people who just are unaware that the dominant option in a space exists. However, if it's like a bunch of YC startups and you're selling into HVAC, right, like they have no clue. Like HVAC, like it's it's yeah, they maybe maybe YC startups are growing pretty fast, but but most people in the market do not know um that those YC companies exist. And so for them, they aren't real options until like a um until there's like a dominant player in the space. Like I think now, if you were to go after jump and say, we're building the best AI note taker for financial advisors, everybody already knows jump in the space. And so, so um the the second L uh does not exist in that space. Jump is good enough, and most people know about it. Yeah.
00:03:14 · S0, Rob Snyder
[00:03:14] S0: Or what you have to correct me on this. What you would want to do if you're trying to enter a busy space, like let's take the workday one, um, is you would want to say, like, when is workday lacking? Like, when is it an instant? Assume that they know about it, find the problem that they're still struggling against, and and that it is mandatory that they solve and that workday cannot already solve. Yes. [00:03:39] S1: Yeah, yeah. Or or find the yeah, find the find the person who is using workday, but like deeply struggling such that they would in a way that they would change in an instant if an option was presented to them. That's option one, right? That's somebody who's actively who's already bought it and struggling and and wants to change. Um or find the person for whom workday is not a viable option.
00:03:39 · Rob Snyder, S0
[00:03:39] S1: Yeah, yeah. Or or find the yeah, find the find the person who is using workday, but like deeply struggling such that they would in a way that they would change in an instant if an option was presented to them. That's option one, right? That's somebody who's actively who's already bought it and struggling and and wants to change. Um or find the person for whom workday is not a viable option. [00:04:03] S0: Yeah. And so they haven't bought it, right? Yeah. So let's hit let's hit the next one. This one's from LL Louis Tel. Everybody needs to like make easier or like names that are handles that are easier for me to pronounce. Um, this is also on the is buying optional. We're talking about in that one again. We talked about like when is it mandatory? And what way we talked about is like what you know, target customers or like build products that uh are mandatory for uh a customer to take action on and to purchase. Um and this this question this seems similar to it would be weird not to buy. Also, it seems like the manufacturers that were not buying in the example were not in dire straits. Um, maybe we let's let's respond to that first part. Um it would be is this the same as it would be weird not to buy? Is it a more extreme version of that? Or like, yeah. [00:04:51] S1: Yeah, well, that mandatory to buy is is basically the same thing as weird not to buy, but people have a hard time understanding uh weird not to buy. And so mandatory to buy is is yeah, it's the same, same thing.
00:04:51 · Rob Snyder, S0
[00:04:51] S1: Yeah, well, that mandatory to buy is is basically the same thing as weird not to buy, but people have a hard time understanding uh weird not to buy. And so mandatory to buy is is yeah, it's the same, same thing. [00:05:02] S0: Okay, perfect. Yeah, for for me, it's like it takes weird not to buy and it holds it to a higher standard. Like it it it requires that um you know I push, I I don't accept something that is uh that I can't explain um why they wouldn't buy, but it's like, oh, is there something that requires that you know you talk about that sometimes as there's a wall, like they're about to there's something, there's a there's something imminent um which makes it mandatory, which is you know, uh to me a little bit stronger than uh than weird not to buy, but similar concept. So good intuition from the commenter. Um let's hit cold out uh a comment from D.
00:05:02 · S0, Rob Snyder
[00:05:02] S0: Okay, perfect. Yeah, for for me, it's like it takes weird not to buy and it holds it to a higher standard. Like it it it requires that um you know I push, I I don't accept something that is uh that I can't explain um why they wouldn't buy, but it's like, oh, is there something that requires that you know you talk about that sometimes as there's a wall, like they're about to there's something, there's a there's something imminent um which makes it mandatory, which is you know, uh to me a little bit stronger than uh than weird not to buy, but similar concept. So good intuition from the commenter. Um let's hit cold out uh a comment from D. [00:05:39] S1: Well, well, so this this one also has the assumption that like weird not to buy or mandatory to buy means you must be in dire straits. And that's actually not the case. That's not that's not a that's a common uh assumption here, but there are many ways. So think about premium products, like working with uh working with the best growth person possible, right? Like you're not in dire straits, then you're probably actually growing fast, but for that kind of person, it is it is unacceptable to not be working with the best. And so, um, and so yeah, that the that's uh look if if people were in dire straits, there would be no if it if this required people to be in dire straits, this couldn't explain premium products. [00:06:32] S0: Yeah, like uh buying a Rolex. Um like it you're there's no dire strait. Like my definition if you can afford a Rolex.