There's a frequent question that Rob gets from founders who are developing new technologies - it takes forms like:

• What if I'm creating a new category?
• What if the customer doesn't know they need our product?

Today, we're digging into the concept of "Latent Demand" - what a customer prioritize right now if only there was a way.

The critical concept here is that a customer is leaning against something. In this episode, we'll try to understand what that looks like and implications for founders who suspect they are targeting a "latent demand" in customers.

Blog post: Latent Demand in Rob's substack, The Physics of Startups

Links

• Rob's Substack: The Physics of Startups
• AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-rob
• Work with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org
• Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)
• Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/

There's a bug in a founder's brain (or at least mine) that likes to fantasize about all the benefits for customer (alleviating pain points, delivering value, helping differentiate, ...), while ignoring the more important question:

"Could they *not* buy?"

Rob helps us understand a different standard from what founders have historically used, which is requisite for a startup to find PULL at scale and hit hypergrowth: Is buying mandatory, or is it just optional?

There are some very subtle things that founders do wrong related to this, including:

• Focusing on "happiest / most satisfied / most valuable" customers rather than the ones for whom buying is mandatory
• Thinking probabilistically about customers ("4 in 10 customers with XYZ buy") instead of deterministically ("This very specific customer cannot not buy my product")

Hope this one helps you reframe the way you think about your ICP - because really, it's the most important early decision we founders make.

Rob's ICP AI skill: https://github.com/RSSnyder13/icp

Links

• Rob's Substack: The Physics of Startups
• AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-rob
• Work with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org
• Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)
• Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/

Customer discovery can be very intimidating. What do I ask? How do I build a connection? How do I improvise?

We're digging into how Rob thinks about discovery, common mistakes, and ways that Rob uses to uncover real customer PULL that leads to purchases. For anyone who has waded into the murky waters of untangling what customers say, hopefully this helps to develop your intuition around what you are trying to achieve and how to get there.

Topics covered:

• What we're really trying to do with customer discovery
• How to ask about "all of PULL" in one question, rather than breaking into pieces and wasting time
• The "fallback questions" to have in your hip pocket if early responses are frustratingly vague / not revealing PULL
• The "break glass in case of emergency" option
• How your approach to discover should change after you find PMF

Links

• Rob's Substack: The Physics of Startups
• AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-rob
• Work with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org
• Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)
• Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/