I know it’s old news now but I was absolutely fascinated by the story of Juicero, the company that raised $120M in venture funding on the promise of being “the future of juice,” only to deliver an overly-complicated, overpriced smooshing machine.
It’s hard to imagine how CEO Doug Evans made his case to investors but I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in those meetings to see how he justified needing a fortune to make a damn smoothie. I’m not trying to pick on him because building a business is tough stuff, and since his previous company was Organic Avenue, it’s clear he has a genuine passion for healthy living. That being said, there’s a simple but necessary business lesson here: Don't solve small problems. Evans clearly has a passion for healthy, vegan living, which is a noble pursuit, but to create a winning business, you need to solve actual problems for people.
For example, I recently attended the Forbes Women’s Summit here in New York City and met the founders of two amazing companies that have addressed real pain points and are having a lot of success by not shying away from challenges.
Sisters Ashley Wade and Hayley Mullins are the co-founders of SleepBelt, a new type of baby carrier that facilitates skin-to-skin contact with babies safely and securely. The idea came to Mullins after she dropped her two-week-old baby. At first, I was shocked that she was so candid about the experience (as a therapist I know how much shame gets thrown around when it comes to other people’s parenting).
Mullins said she also expected judgment when she first started discussing her aha moment, but instead, she received gratitude from women who had experienced similar struggles as new mothers. She explains, “Infant falls are a very common problem that no one talks about, and no one solves it because no one talks about it!”
By being open about the issue that other carrying products weren't addressing, their origin story made them relatable and incredibly popular. After SleepBelt took off, they decided to design a full infant support system. So with a loan from investor collective SheEO, the women-designed products that have secured a series of national and international patents, hospital contracts and an endorsement from Leche League International. All because it solved a real, but unspoken, problem. Now three years after launch, the Canadian team has had huge growth year over year and is used in 107 hospitals. Not to mention that it was named a Trusted Leader by the Association of Women's Health Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, and is an established name in parenting products.
Joy Tang also saw an opportunity for innovation when she founded Markable, an artificial intelligence company that makes it easy to buy any product in any video. I’m very interested in AI and Tang has emerged as an expert in the space. Prior to founding Markable, she won a gold medal in the Math Olympics, went on to become the only international student from China in her class at MIT, where she earned a full scholarship, and worked in high-frequency trading for seven years. Even with her impressive background, like many female founders, Tang reveals that she had problems raising funding because her fashion tech product lives in the “pink ghetto,” a term for businesses that serve women and are often dismissed by investors. But Tang persisted and was able to attract top talent because image recognition in video is an unsolved problem and this was an easy use case through which to develop the tool.
She now has four PhD-level computer vision engineers on her team, patented technology that can identifies 800 fashion brands and 10M products, and an algorithm that outperforms Pinterest, Microsoft and even Google. All born from a desire to find the perfect pair of shoes!
So no matter what your inspiration, remember that the best businesses address a pain point, and either make those hurdles easier to overcome, cheaper, or faster. So don’t be intimidated by problems, be inspired by them.
