CHAPTER THREE
Breakthrough Market Opportunities
Market pain = market opportunity.
Greater pain = greater opportunity.
A WELL-WORN PHRASE AMONG VENTURE CAPITALISTS is that they seek businesses that are “painkillers, not vitamins.” Painkillers are pretty sure to be adopted by the market, and people are willing to pay for them. It’s much harder to predict demand for vitamins. Sometimes venture capitalists express the same point about painkillers and vitamins by saying they are looking for something the customer “has to have” instead of “nice to have.”
Frequently it’s hard to see what a painkiller might be. A cure for AIDS is an obvious painkiller, but a new social network for consumers that allows you to “pin” pictures of your favorite stuff ...
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