Document Real Problems

Jack Abraham shares his contrarian approach to identifying startup opportunities by focusing on real-world problem observation rather than traditional ideation methods.

Core Philosophy on Finding Ideas

• Avoid traditional brainstorming sessions
  • Contrarian to typical startup studio approach
  • Never had formal brainstorming sessions in over a decade at Atomic
  • Believes brainstorming creates contrived solutions to potentially non-existent problems

Problem-First Methodology

• Observe real problems in multiple contexts:

  • Personal experiences
  • Team challenges
  • Portfolio company issues
  • Enterprise customer needs

• Testing Process:

  • Build product to solve observed problem
  • Deploy across portfolio companies
  • Use as built-in customer base
  • "Dog food" the solution internally
  • Only release to wider market after proven success

Problem Documentation System

• Maintains list of 600+ ideas in Evernote
• Based on belief that "world is fundamentally broken"
• Focuses on improvement opportunities in:
  • Everyday life situations
  • Doctor's office experiences
  • Commuting
  • Company interactions
  • Sales team operations

Key Insight

• Problems exist everywhere for potential improvement
• Not everything needs to be "broken broken"
• Focus on opportunities to "uplevel" existing systems
• Document observations immediately when spotted
• Use documented problems as seeds for new company creation