Distribution first, problem-solving second. This might sound counterintuitive, but I’ve found it easier to have a clear distribution plan than knowing what problem I’m set out to solve. While both are super correlated, not all solutions offer a clear path to grow.

Once you start acquiring users in a market, you’ll get to spend an enormous amount of time with those users, which will teach you more about their problems than you can ever come up with on your own.

Buy Me a Coffee wasn’t solving a painful problem. Creators could’ve very easily shared a PayPal donate link or use Patreon. However, we ended up solving a problem they didn’t know they had. We were intentional about getting the distribution right from day one. It started with a very sticky and shareable name. The product was also designed to be shared, with growth loops built into every corner of the site. Once we became popular among creators, we set out to solve the more important problems, like charging for locked content, setting up a membership, and eventually becoming the “primary bio link” of hundreds of thousands of creators.