Paul Graham · 2012 · 5 min
Schlep Blindness
Founders unconsciously avoid problems that involve schleps — and that's exactly where the best startups hide.
Key Takeaways
- 01Stripe became Stripe because Patrick & John were willing to deal with banks, KYC, and PCI compliance. Everyone else avoided that schlep.
- 02If an idea makes you cringe a little because it sounds annoying to build, that's a feature, not a bug.
- 03Schleps are moats. Every annoying step is one your competitor doesn't want to take.
Distilled
The real reason most startup ideas don't get built isn't that no one thought of them. It's that the people who thought of them recoiled. Talking to insurance companies. Setting up a real warehouse. Getting FDA approval. Calling 200 dentists.
PG's advice: deliberately consider ideas in proportion to how much they sound like a schlep. The schlep filter accidentally screens out 90% of competitors before you write line one of code.
Source
paulgraham.com — Schlep Blindness →We summarize so you can decide whether to read the full piece. Always read the source for context.