Antler’s framework to find the right problem to solve. | VC & Startup Jobs.
Hidden trap of going viral & Vampire Attacks: Growth strategy behind billion-dollar marketplaces.
👋 Hey, Sahil here! Welcome to this bi-weekly venture curator newsletter, where we dive into the world of startups, growth, product building, and venture capital. In today’s newsletter -
Deep Dive: Antler’s framework to find the right problem to solve.
Quick Dive:
The hidden trap of going viral: why it brings the wrong users.
Vampire Attacks: The growth strategy behind billion-dollar marketplaces.
Expertly curated resources for founders.
Major News: Meta poaches three OpenAI researchers, China reveals tiny mosquito-sized spy drones, Bumble to lay off 30% of staff, OpenAI’s first AI device with Jony Ive won’t be a wearable & more.
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📜 TODAY’S DEEP DIVE
Antler’s framework to find the right problem to solve.
The Classical school of Economics chanted, "Supply creates its demand!” Fast forward to the modern era, the “supply first'' days are long gone. We live in an age of abundance, and new-age entrepreneurs must find the customer demand before creating supply. In modern entrepreneurship, this saying has reversed: "Demand creates its supply."
Where do you think demand originates from?
The answer is simple: From a problem waiting to be solved!
If you closely look at any long-lasting business, you'll realise that its core idea germinated from solving customers’ heartfelt problems. A significant and market-relevant problem. No surprise that Uri Levine, the founder of Waze, suggests, "Fall in love with the problem, not the solution." In this writeup we will dive into -
Great companies focus on solving heartfelt problems.
What defines a heart-felt problem?
The five characteristics of heartfelt problems
How do you identify if a heart-felt problem is worth solving?
Great companies focus on solving heart-felt problems
A study conducted by the Harvard Business Review confirmed that 85% of executives believe that their organisations diagnose problems poorly. Most of them agree that this results in poor time and cost management and lost opportunity costs.
Problem-solving involves finding innovative and creative solutions to address societal, technological, or business-related problems.
Take, for example, WhatsApp's story. When its founders started the company, their main focus was on solving heart-felt problems concerning the high cost of international communication. This societal problem has existed for centuries since empires started to take over the world.
WhatsApp wasn’t the only player in this space—Viber, Google Allo, Kik, Skype, and even FB Messenger were competing in the market.
The team at WhatsApp recognised that mobile carriers and other apps were going against the customer problem. Competitors like Viber and Skype limited the experience by charging for international VOIP calls, and mobile carriers were charging exorbitant prices for international SMS.
WhatsApp doubled down on the customer problem and created features like free calls, free instant messaging, and only 99 cents for the app.
The bet paid off, and they grew by 100M users every month. The exit? A whopping $19 billion from Meta with only a team of 32 people.
What does this tell us?
Customer problems are the North Star for all great companies.
WhatsApp was able to focus relentlessly on the need for cheaper and faster international communication. Every decision they made focused on making communication more affordable and quicker for their users.
Customer problems don’t change; it’s only technology and customer behaviour that does.
WhatsApp wasn’t the first app to democratise communication, and Amazon wasn’t the first e-commerce company. If it’s a valuable problem, someone is already solving it. So don’t jump into solutions too quickly for fear of losing market share.
“Competing on a solution is a zero-sum game that eventually leads to a feature war, then a price war and all value is eventually destroyed.
In the startup world, the onus lies on founders to fall in love with the customer problem. When the customer problem is clear, founders can create solutions from new customer behaviours and emerg ing technology trends to create innovative businesses.
So how do you identify a heart-felt problem for your customers? Let’s take a look.
What defines a heart-felt problem?
Customer problems exist across multiple layers. There’s a surface layer where they tell you a solution they have in mind—like I want to save money making international calls. But at its core, all problems distil down to one or a few of these emotions:
Security
Attention
Control
Meaning & purpose
Privacy
Community
Intimacy
Status
Achievement
How many of these emotional problems do you think WhatsApp solves?
Great entrepreneurs look beyond the customer-suggested problems. They ask “5 whys” until they get to the emotional reason that causes a customer to seek out a product.
Take the case of Slack, a workplace communication tool that has revolutionised how offices communicate.
Before Slack existed, office communication relied on email. The email was designed to be formal and disposable. However, Slack channels allowed teams with a shared interest to create more inclusive communication for everyone.
Suddenly, people working on the same project can create a project channel with a “searchable log of all communication and knowledge” (which is what SLACK stands for). What used to be an email thread now has a permanent space to foster a discussion around a common goal.
People can create project channels, shared interest channels, to company announcements. Giving internal teams shared meaning and purpose for the company they work in.
Companies are not buying Slack to replace emails but are buying Slack for the sense of community, meaning and shared purpose.
The five characteristics of heartfelt problems
Here are the five characteristics of heart-felt problems. The deeper the pain, the more value you can get from your customers:
Emotional — the problem must have an emotion attached to it
Functional — the problem must fulfil the basic functional need of the problem
Frequent — the problem must happen frequently enough for the user to justify the value
Urgent — the problem must have an impending deadline
Unavoidable — the problem must not have an easier way to get around the problem
It’s the entrepreneur's job to identify these five characteristics of a heart-felt problem and provide a solution to solve it well.
So, how do you identify if a heart-felt problem is worth solving?
"In a great market—a market with lots of real potential customers, the market pulls product out of the startup. Conversely, in a terrible market, you can have the best product in the world, and it doesn’t matter—you’re going to fail."
- Marc Andreessen
You’ll need to generate product ideas from market research and then identify customers' problems in that market to solve.
The first step is to research the market you want to be a part of. The opportunity size is based on how much your customer is spending to solve the problem right now. This information can come from industry research, government websites, and annual reports of key competitors, or you may even need to commission research if it’s too niche.
Useful tools to gather information about your market: Statistica, AnswerThePublic & Gartner etc.
Once you’ve gathered the market size of your product, you can start to identify the heart-felt problems for your customers.
You need to get out of your comfort zone and speak with your target customers. Put yourself in their shoes, and think about the problem you’re trying to solve.
Ask yourself:
If this customer problem exists, where would your customers go to solve it?
Chances are there are existing communities or media channels that connect your potential customers. Go there.
Don’t be afraid to speak with your competitor’s customers to understand why they purchased the product and what problem it was solving for them. It’s a free market.
The goal is to find your small set of early adopter customers—people who will tell their friends about your product. Look for the most profitable customer segment to start there.
Don’t fall into the trap of trying to target “everyone” (it’s a trap). You’ll spread yourself too thin and lose sight of the core customer problem.
There is no magic number of how many customer interviews you speak with. I like to start with five customers first, then adjust my questions every five customers until I’ve honed in on a deep enough problem with a large enough market size.
For B2B products, you’ll need to be more creative and treat customer interviews as a networking opportunity. You need to rely on introductions, conferences, meetups, host events, or even work in the industry to build a network. You need to pay it forward long before you can draw on the favours for customer insights.
Using the Jobs-To-Be-Done interview popularised by Clayton Christensen is an excellent method to speak with customers.
The trick is to find a deep customer problem in a market that is large enough to sustain your vision. 99% of the world’s problems are not worth solving but if you persist, you’ll eventually find one.
That’s it.
If you're a founder seeking guidance, look no further than the must-follow resources meticulously developed by Antler's Academy. (Featured Article)
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📃 QUICK DIVES
1. The hidden trap of going viral: why it brings the wrong users.
Recently, I came across a tweet by Andrew Chen where he discussed how founders often fall into the trap of chasing virality, only to end up with a flood of low-quality users. It resonated with me, so I thought to share my thoughts and a few key points on this.
Every founder dreams of their product going viral. A flood of new users, signups spiking, your app trending on Reddit and X—it’s the fantasy, right? But when it happens, reality hits differently.
It starts slow. A small group of loyal users finds your product. They give feedback. You iterate. Feels good. Then, one day, a funny video about your app blows up. A major influencer shares it. Signups skyrocket. Feels even better. But then, the Looky-Loos arrive.
The Looky-Loo Problem
LOOKY-LOO (noun): A person who checks something out with no real intent to use it seriously.
Going viral doesn’t just bring more users—it brings the wrong users. These aren’t your ideal customers; they’re tourists. They try the product, poke around, maybe share a meme, and then vanish. Your DAUs spike, but retention doesn’t. Your revenue doesn’t. Your support inbox? Flooded with nonsense.
Suddenly, you’re dealing with international users who don’t fit your market, edge cases breaking the product and chaotic community interactions. If your growth is built on Looky-Loos, it’s not real growth—it’s noise.
Easy Come, Easy Go
The growth that happens fast usually disappears just as fast. Here’s what happens next:
The traffic spike dies down after a few days.
The new users don’t stick around.
Engagement drops. Conversion rates tank. Your metrics look worse than before.
You scramble to create another viral moment, only to realise you can’t manufacture lightning twice.
Traction isn’t just about more users. It’s about high-intent users—people who genuinely want your product and will stick around long-term.
What Works
Instead of chasing virality, focus on growth that’s durable, scalable, and valuable:
Durable Growth: Users who keep coming back. Look at D1/D7/D30 retention, not just DAUs.
Scalable Growth: Repeatable acquisition channels—referrals, SEO, paid marketing—not just one-time spikes.
Valuable Users: Not all users are equal. Focus on those who engage deeply, pay, and spread word-of-mouth.
When Spikes Can Work
Some situations where a viral moment can be useful:
Waitlists: Filtering users before letting them in keeps quality high.
Raising VC Money: A spike in traction can help close funding but don’t build a business expecting virality.
Products Built for Churn: Some apps (e.g., AI photo generators) expect short-term use and monetise aggressively upfront.
Network Effects: If even 1% of a viral audience sticks, they can kickstart a community or marketplace.
Focus on the Right Users
Going viral might feel great, but it’s not a business strategy. Real traction comes from gradual, consistent growth with users who care. Instead of chasing DAU spikes, build something people love—because love, not virality, is what makes a product last.
Also, if you really want to learn about building real virality products that last long, I would highly suggest checking this podcast - Nikita Bier’s Playbook for winning at consumer apps.
2. Vampire Attacks: The growth strategy behind billion-dollar marketplaces.
Some of the most iconic marketplaces in the world didn’t grow by playing fair. They grew by being scrappy, aggressive, and willing to operate in the grey.
Airbnb, Uber, Thumbtack, and even PayPal didn’t wait around for users to show up, they took them from other platforms.
It’s called a vampire attack. And if you’re building a marketplace or trying to overcome the chicken-and-egg problem, it might be one of the most valuable frameworks you can study.
Colin Gardiner recently shared some of the best insights I’ve seen on this strategy. He walked through how some of the biggest platforms in tech history executed vampire attacks to bootstrap supply and demand, and what founders can learn from them today.
Here’s a summary of the key ideas, case studies, and takeaways worth saving.
The vampire attack is a strategy where you deliberately siphon users’ supply, demand, or both from an existing platform. You piggyback off the incumbent’s hard-earned network, solve user pain with a better experience, and pull those users into your own ecosystem.
It’s aggressive, often controversial, but extremely effective when done well.
Airbnb is one of the clearest examples. In its early days, the team noticed people listing their rooms on Craigslist. So they built tools that let hosts cross-post directly to Craigslist, and they emailed thousands of hosts telling them to list on Airbnb too.
The result? Travellers saw Airbnb links on Craigslist. Hosts got better exposure and a superior product. Both sides gradually migrated. That one hack helped Airbnb break the cold-start trap.
Thumbtack did something similar. They built an easy listing tool for service providers that also lets them repost to Craigslist with better formatting. Providers loved it. Thumbtack grew. Craigslist unknowingly fueled it.
Uber poached drivers from Lyft in an even more aggressive way. They ordered rides on Lyft, pitched drivers to switch mid-ride, and gave out bonuses.
Meanwhile, PayPal grew within eBay by simply offering the fastest, most reliable payments until they became so embedded that eBay had no choice but to acquire them.
Other examples include:
Outdoorsy piggybacking on Facebook Marketplace’s bulk listing tools before getting blocked
TikTok is buying billions in ads on YouTube and Instagram to steal users directly
Didi is beating Uber in China by subsidising rides and embedding itself inside WeChat and Alipay
SushiSwap is draining over $1B in liquidity from Uniswap using token rewards
Job marketplaces like Uber and Instacart are posting on Indeed to rapidly recruit drivers
The patterns repeat. First, find where users already exist. Second, build a bridge to your product, whether that’s tools, integrations, scraping, or incentives. Third, deliver a meaningfully better experience. That last part is critical. Vampire attacks are a door opener. Retention depends on real product value.
But this strategy also carries risks. If you’re too dependent on another platform, whether it’s Craigslist, Google SEO, or Twitter APIs, you can get cut off. Airbnb lost its Craigslist integration. Zynga stagnated after Facebook throttled its virality. Meerkat collapsed when Twitter shut off access.
So you use the vampire attack to gain momentum, but you don’t rely on it forever. You need to build direct acquisition channels, own your user relationships, and evolve the product into something people stay for, not just click into.
There’s also an ethical tension here. Some tactics push boundaries. Some are more cooperative. Some create value for both sides. It all depends on execution.
The key is this: these attacks only work when the incumbent is vulnerable, when they’ve stopped innovating, ignored user needs, or left a poor experience unaddressed. And in a world where new platform shifts are emerging, especially in AI, opportunities are wide open again.
Being early to the next platform unlocks is one of the strongest growth levers you’ll ever find.
Highly recommend to read this detailed article here by Colin Gardiner.
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From investor databases to legal docs, pitch decks, financial models, and practical templates, everything is built by founders, for founders.
All these resources are curated and built with the help of leading VC firms and founders (bootstrapped/raised a million dollars from VCs)..
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THIS WEEK’S NEWS RECAP
🗞️ Major News In Tech, VC, & Startup Funding
New In VC
Traction Capital, a Minneapolis, MN-based venture capital and growth equity firm, launched $30M Fund II, its second investment fund focused on scaling early-stage businesses. (Read)
Sentinel Global, a San Francisco, CA-based venture capital firm dedicated to connecting visionary founders with real-world adopters, closed its inaugural fund, Sentinel Fund I, at $213.5m. (Read)
Lakestar, a leading European VC firm, is reportedly raising $300 million for a new defence-focused fund. (Read)
Major Tech Updates
Meta poached three OpenAI researchers—Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai—who helped set up OpenAI’s Zurich office. (Read)
Google introduced Gemini CLI, an open-source terminal-based AI tool that integrates Gemini models directly into developer workflows. (Read)
Bumble is laying off 30% of its workforce (around 240 roles) to streamline operations and reinvest in product and tech, expecting $40M in annual savings. (Read)
Google Earth now offers historical Street View imagery, letting you explore past views of locations by using a specific menu bar to select different time periods. (Read)
Microsoft is planning major layoffs within its Xbox gaming business as early as next week, with managers reportedly briefed on these upcoming job cuts. (Read)
New Startup Deals
Jaan Health, a NYC-based provider of an AI-powered proactive care platform, raised more than $25m in funding. (Read)
EverDye, a Paris, France-based developer of an energy-efficient dyeing process to make sustainable fashion accessible, raised €15M in Series A funding. (Read)
Delphi, a San Francisco, CA-based company that creates AI digital minds to help people scale communication, raised $16M in Series A funding. (Read)
Skyramp, a San Francisco, CA-based AI-driven testing and debugging tool for engineering teams, raised $10M in seed funding. (Read)
YieldClub, a Washington, D.C.-based provider of a mobile app for crypto savings, raised $2.5M in Pre-Seed funding. (Read)
Qualytics, an Atlanta, GA-based provider of an enterprise platform for augmented data quality, raised $10M in Series A funding. (Read)
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