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Day 1

Your Itch to Scratch

In the early 2000s, Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, wrote an essay called "What You Can’t Say," which wasn’t about startups but noticing things other people overlook. Startups often begin with the same kind of noticing—an irritation, an oddity, or a problem you’ve quietly tolerated for too long.

Every founder has a version of this moment, and it rarely looks like the opening scene of a movie. In 2007, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were broke and struggling to pay rent in San Francisco. During that period, a design conference was in town, and every hotel was sold out. So, they bought a few air mattresses, turned their living room into a temporary crash pad, and offered bed and breakfast to conference attendees. That moment, born out of financial pressure and a bit of hustle, became the seed of Airbnb.

They scratched their own itch and found millions of others had the same one. Instead of setting out to build a billion-dollar company, Chesky and Gebbia fixed a frustration.

What’s the Itch?

The "itch" is the problem you live with every day. It's raw and urgent, and it can be your business's heartbeat. Build something based on what people actually struggle with, and demand is built-in.

Look at the biggest disruptors. Uber? Created because two guys couldn't find a taxi in Paris. Slack? Built to solve a communication problem within a gaming company. Starbucks? Born from a frustration with the lack of a true café culture in the U.S.

Method 1: Scratch Your Own Itch