Showerthought: That chat with a guy at South Congress Coffee made me rethink my whole pitch deck

I was grabbing a cold brew last Tuesday at South Congress Coffee and ended up talking to this older dude waiting for his order. He asked what I did, I said AI tools for real estate agents, gave him my usual spiel. He just nodded and said "so you're selling a problem they don't know they have yet." Hit me hard because he was right. I had been spending all my time on features and ROI calculators instead of just asking agents what actually pisses them off daily. He said most tech startups here burn cash chasing solutions nobody asked for. So I spent my weekend calling 5 agents I know and just listened. What they told me was way different than what I assumed. Has anyone else had a random stranger totally wreck your business assumptions like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

tara64219d ago

Yeah, that stranger nailed it.

emerym3619d ago

Correct me if I'm wrong but Tara642 was the one who said the stranger nailed it, not the one who delivered the original take. Sean_cooper58 gave the longer version, and Tara642 was just agreeing with sean_cooper58. Still a good point about getting too caught up in your own ideas though lol.

sean_cooper5819d ago

Tara642 nailed it with that short take but I gotta say something longer. That old dude saw through the whole charade in one sentence. Most of us get so wrapped up in what we're building we forget to check if anyone actually wants it. I made that same mistake with my pressure washing side gig years ago, kept buying fancy equipment nobody asked for. Tara642, you're right, but I think the real lesson is how easy it is to miss what's right in front of you when you're staring at your own spreadsheet.