Every Great Company Starts With a Problem — But Where Do You Find One?
Every Great Company Starts With a Problem — But Where Do You Find One?
(The Lagos-to-London Founder Series)
So I met David — a Business Development master’s student working at a tech company. Smart guy. Wore confidence like cologne. He teamed up with two friends — Emma, a code wizard, and Tom, an economics nerd who quoted Warren Buffett like scripture. Together, they had energy, vision, and ambition.
But there was just one thing missing.
👉 They didn’t have a problem to solve.
Every Friday, they’d gather at a coffee shop in Lagos (sometimes online when Tom was in London) to brainstorm. After three cappuccinos and six hours of “strategy talk,” the only thing they built was a Google Doc titled “Startup Ideas (v17 FINAL FINAL).” 😭
David sighed one day and said to me,
“We’ve learned all about design thinking, MVPs, and raising VC money — but no one teaches you how to find the problem in the first place.”
And that right there… is where most founders get stuck.
They want to start the next unicorn but can’t even find a donkey with a limp. 🦄
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So I asked him one simple question:
“What frustrates you daily that everyone else just accepts as normal?”
He paused. Thought deeply.
Then it hit him — small and mid-size African startups struggle to access affordable user research tools like founders in the US or UK. They were guessing what users wanted, not knowing.
Boom. That frustration was the problem.
That’s the birthplace of every great company.
💡 Uber started because someone was tired of waiting for taxis.
💡 Airbnb started because two broke guys couldn’t afford rent.
💡 Canva started because a teacher was tired of ugly student presentations.
The point? Stop chasing ideas. Start chasing complaints.
Problems hide in pain points, bad workflows, and the daily “why is this still so hard in 2025?” moments.
Fast-forward 6 months — David’s team built a lean MVP helping founders validate ideas faster without spending thousands. They tested it with 10 founders, refined it, and launched their beta.
Now they’re doing $7,500/month and even got noticed by a US investor who called it “the SurveyMonkey for emerging markets.”
Here’s the truth:
Most founders are idea-hungry when they should be problem-hungry.
The world doesn’t reward creativity — it rewards clarity.
And that’s where design comes in.
As a Product Designer, I help founders turn those “ugh, why’s this so hard?” moments into scalable, profitable products — in dollars.
Because great design doesn’t start with color palettes.
It starts with empathy.
💬 Are you a founder stuck trying to “find your problem”?
Send me a DM — let’s turn your frustration into your next million-dollar idea.
