Framework
Better AND cheaper means zero product-market-fit risk
Shaan refines the framework: Uber won because it was better and cheaper than a cab, which removes product-market-fit risk. Being better-but-pricier (Boom supersonic jets) or cheaper-but-not-better still leaves demand risk.
“Whereas the trick with like something like an Uber, for example, Uber was way more convenient and it was cheaper than a cab. And so that's better and cheaper. Better and cheaper is when you have zero product-market fit risk. Um, but if you're better but more expensive, or you're cheaper but not better, then you still have the product- benefit risk and you shouldn't miss out on that.”
Steal thisOnly assume demand is guaranteed when your offer is simultaneously better and cheaper than the incumbent.
Idea
Checker turned background checks into an API call and hit a $1B valuation
Sam describes Checkr, which raised $150-200M at a billion-dollar valuation by running background checks for gig platforms like Uber and Lyft. Shaan frames the insight as turning a tedious manual process into a simple API call.
“Raised $150-200 million at a billion-dollar valuation. And it's crazy simple. All they do is they do the background checks for particularly for a lot of the gig folks. So like Uber and Lyft whenever they want to.”
Steal thisFind a tedious, mandatory manual process (background checks, notarization) and turn it into a simple API call for high-volume platform buyers.
Framework
The idea checklist: hair-on-fire, huge market, 10x better
Iman's criteria before committing a decade to an idea: it must solve a hair-on-fire problem, be a huge market (so 1-2% share is enough), and your unique insight must be at least 10x better — not an incremental improvement.
“It should be ideally a huge market because if you just capture 1% of it, 2% of it, then you're fine. Right. The third piece is whatever you come up with, your unique insight needs to be at least 10 times better than what's already out there. Okay, like it needs to be faster, better, cheaper, whatever, whatever it is, but at least 10 times better. It can't just be some small incremental improvement.”
Steal thisVet every idea against four filters: hair-on-fire problem, huge market, 10x-better insight, and founder-market fit.
Framework
Cure the cancer, not the itch
An investor's advice that shaped Vungle: don't build something that merely scratches a customer's itch (a nice-to-have they'll shrug off if it vanishes); build something that cures their cancer—a must-have. Video ads delivered real users; blog placements were just an itch.
“He said, don't create a business where you're curing your customer's itch. Like, if you don't exist, they're like, oh, well, it's just an itch, it doesn't matter. Like, your antidote for my itch is nice, but, you know, whatever. He's like, create something where it cures your customer's cancer.”
Steal thisBuild painkillers, not vitamins—solve a problem the customer would be desperate to fix, not a nice-to-have.