Maxwell: Founders struggle to find problems when they push personal agendas
Dane Maxwell · Under 30, Made $5m, Tells Me He Loves Me Dane Maxwell Ep 2 · Feb 24, 2016 · at 5:41
Dane Maxwell, founder of The Foundation incubator, explains why non-technical founders struggle in customer discovery.
0:00 / 0:35exact quote · 35.3s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“People tend to get stuck for extended periods of time on finding a painful problem to solve. That's this, that's like, so, you know, people are sometimes will take four or five, six months just to find a single painful problem to solve. And the reason it takes them so long is because, well, they bring their agenda into the mix. They try to push things onto people that people don't necessarily want. They don't actually have a level of care and empathy for the person they're talking to. They're more driven by their own agenda.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Dane Maxwell
Dane Maxwell: Software succeeds by improving existing behaviors, not modifying habits
“And that if you get the idea really solid and sound, meaning it's not modifying someone's behavior, they're currently looking for a solution, they're currently doing that thing without, without the product itself. And so not like, you know, like a Nordic track…”
Dane Maxwell advises finding SaaS ideas by asking what software frustrates professionals
“You could send someone cold. It's like, Hey, I'm looking to build software for your industry. And I'm just looking to know what software do you use right now? That makes you want to throw your computer out the window.”
Dane Maxwell positioned Paperless Pipeline as overhead reduction, avoiding feature-based comparisons
“All of my competitors were selling is it's transaction management software. So all of my competitors, they were selling transaction management software. But what I did is I sold how to build a mobile office, how to reduce your overhead.”
Dane Maxwell: Asking businesses how they use Excel reveals new software opportunities
“What do you use Microsoft Excel for in your business? Cause whatever using Excel for, you can find solutions to.”
Dane Maxwell spends less than one hour per year managing Paperless Pipeline
“I spend less than an hour a year on it cause I've got a great CEO and I told him, listen, if you make 25% profit margins, you can do whatever you want.”
Dane Maxwell says beginner entrepreneurs obsess over mechanisms, not customer outcomes
“The fundamentals of a business, as you know, as many know, is a customer that uses a mechanism to get a result. That's really a business in a nutshell. A customer that uses a mechanism to get a result. New people that are looking to start a business obsess abo…”