The One Thing Your Customers Actually Want

(And It’s Not What You Think)

February 26, 2025

Hey — It’s Charlie.

Welcome to the latest edition of Great Startups! Here’s what’s in store:

  • New Social Media Platform: BuzzFeed is launching a new Social Media platform.

  • Musk Money Show: Elon Musk offered $97.4B to buy OpenAI

  • Year Full of Failures: Data suggests 2025 will be full of failed startups

  • Targeting Made Simple: A step-by-step guide to finding your perfect customer.

  • Hidden Startup Debt: The silent killer that’s slowing growth.

Get ready to dive into these power-packed insights for founders and growth enthusiasts!

Resources

  • Three Observations by Sam Altman. (LINK)

  • Data suggests 2025 will be full of failed startups. (LINK)

  • Deep Research and Knowledge Value. (LINK)

  • How to get AI Startup Ideas. (LINK)

  • What comes after coding, according to Vercel founder. (LINK)

ICYMI

  • BuzzFeed is launching a new Social Media platform. (LINK)

  • SoftBank might invest 25 billion on OpenAI. (LINK)

  • Elon Musk offered $97.4B to buy OpenAI but his offer was rejected. (LINK)

  • The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained. (LINK)

  • Anthropic sees revenue potentially soaring to $34.5 billion in 2027. (LINK)

  • Entrepreneur John Mullins shares 6 unconventional mindsets to spark innovation and drive entrepreneurial success.

  • This guy solved a simple problem, shared how he finds profitable micro SaaS ideas, and offers lessons you can apply in 2025.

  • Lenny Rachitsky and Jen Abel on how to approach founder-led sales.

  • Carta shares 50 slides packed with insights for founders from 45,000 startups.

  • How One AI App Founder Makes $20K+ Monthly—and How You Can Too!

The Secret to Winning Customers? Solve the Problem They Actually Care About

Alright, here’s the scoop: when you’re building a product, it’s not just about solving the immediate problem—it’s about understanding the real need behind it. Take Charlie, who just wants to be a famous speaker but ends up buying AWS infrastructure to set up a WordPress site. Why? Because companies often focus on the wrong level of the “Needs Stack.” The higher you go up the stack (like Substack helping you build an audience instead of just a website), the more you can make the lower levels irrelevant. That’s how you win.

So, what’s the takeaway? Don’t just sell features—sell the benefits that matter to your customers. If they’re searching for a wrench, show them the wrench, but also tell them how it’ll save their day. And if you can, move up the stack to solve bigger problems. Make the lower-level stuff obsolete. Because at the end of the day, Charlie doesn’t care about servers—they care about becoming Tony Robbins. Help them get there, and you’ve got a customer for life. (LINK)

Ok that’s it for this week, We keep refining our newsletter content, just hit reply to let us know what you think about this issue.