If you have the privilege of choosing where to work, don’t settle for a company that simply claims to care about its customers.
Join one where the founders have lived the customer’s pain themselves.
Do the founders feel the problem in their bones?
Were they that buyer once?
This is rarer than you think.
Here is what you'll see more often:
Scenario 1: Second-hand problems
Founders chase "white space opportunities" pointed out by VCs, not problems they've personally wrestled with. No lived experience = no fire in the belly.
Scenario 2: The pivot trap
Started passionate about Problem A, pivoted to Market B after a few iterations. The visceral connection is gone. Now they just copy and follow successful Startup X.
Scenario 3: The 10-year drift
Once-passionate founders now obsess over metrics instead of customer outcomes. The product is average, and customers can mitigate their problems in different ways… The business becomes just a way to make a living. The founder's heart left the building.
How do you spot less than customer-obsessive companies?
- The CEO fixates on metrics but struggles to articulate a vision
- The product is handed off to an outsider
- Messaging is “undifferentiated,” and Marketing gets the blame
- Sales is the only team still talking to customers
- Everyone looks to competitors for inspiration
It gets cold, mechanical, and performative. The fire has gone out.
As Jeff Bezos said countless times and in countless ways: “The number one thing that has made Amazon successful by far is obsessive-compulsive focus on the customer.”
So hang on until you find this obsessive-compulsive customer-centric rocketship! And when you do, hold on tight.
Join one where the founders have lived the customer’s pain themselves.
Do the founders feel the problem in their bones?
Were they that buyer once?
This is rarer than you think.
Here is what you'll see more often:
Scenario 1: Second-hand problems
Founders chase "white space opportunities" pointed out by VCs, not problems they've personally wrestled with. No lived experience = no fire in the belly.
Scenario 2: The pivot trap
Started passionate about Problem A, pivoted to Market B after a few iterations. The visceral connection is gone. Now they just copy and follow successful Startup X.
Scenario 3: The 10-year drift
Once-passionate founders now obsess over metrics instead of customer outcomes. The product is average, and customers can mitigate their problems in different ways… The business becomes just a way to make a living. The founder's heart left the building.
How do you spot less than customer-obsessive companies?
- The CEO fixates on metrics but struggles to articulate a vision
- The product is handed off to an outsider
- Messaging is “undifferentiated,” and Marketing gets the blame
- Sales is the only team still talking to customers
- Everyone looks to competitors for inspiration
It gets cold, mechanical, and performative. The fire has gone out.
As Jeff Bezos said countless times and in countless ways: “The number one thing that has made Amazon successful by far is obsessive-compulsive focus on the customer.”
So hang on until you find this obsessive-compulsive customer-centric rocketship! And when you do, hold on tight.
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