How the World's Best Investor Finds Startup Problems
Date
Nov 19, 2025
Classification
- Startups
#
- Product/Methodology
LeanX / leanX, CEO
We help entrepreneurs execute their plans to create products that the world needs.
"The idea is good, but we won't invest." The truth about pitching revealed by an a16z partner
🫑 3-Line Summary
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A16z partner Andrew Lee points out that the cause of pitching failure is not a bad idea, but the founder's wrong attitude, such as verbose explanations and exaggerated numbers.
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Investors place greater trust in "earned insights" gained directly in the field and honest stories of failure than in performances that merely imitate Steve Jobs.
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Instead of the illusion of a "market for everyone," you must delve deeply into a single customer and instantly deliver a "wow moment" using language that even a five-year-old can understand, instead of technical jargon.
🥦 Insight
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Stop the 'perfect acting' and bring out your 'rough sincerity'.
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Sometimes I feel a sense of pity when I watch entrepreneurs on pitching day stage. They strike gestures as if they were Steve Jobs, draw graphs trending 200% upward, and shout, "We have no competitors." However, investors have an uncanny ability to sniff out the anxiety hidden beneath that flashy packaging.
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The most painful piece of advice Andrew Lee gives is "Suck Less." This does not mean you should be perfect. It means you should cut out "messy elements" such as lying (exaggerated numbers), showing off (overusing jargon), and avoiding (changing the subject).
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What investors truly want to buy is not your eloquent speech, but your own "Earned Insight"—the realization that "I rolled the ground myself and discovered these secrets of the market." Open your deck again today. Once you peel back the wrapping, is your genuine "sweat" and "secrets" still inside? Only that raw truth opens an investor's wallet.
— View original —
✍🏻 Good startup ideas don't come from 'thinking'
- The person who 'discovers' the problem starts a startup.
1️⃣ If you try to "think" of an idea, you fail.
Paul Graham says..
Startup ideas are not obtained by thinking them up. They are obtained by 'discovering' problems .
Most founders rack their brains to come up with ideas, but the results of this approach are always the same.
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An idea that looks plausible but nobody wants
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"Sitcom startup ideas" like a 'pet social media' (ideas that seem straight out of a drama)
These things appear plausible on the surface but are not urgent at all for the user.
2️⃣ The real problem is visible only when solving "my problem"
Why should startup ideas start from 'my problem'? The simplest reason is this.
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