Scratch Your Own Itch

It seems that this phrase is becoming a “startup” model for generating business ideas. The first time I read it was in Rework, the latest book by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, by the way, one of my favorite books and I will surely continue writing about it.

This “scratch your own itch” thing might sound a bit strange, but it’s simple: find a problem you have internally in your company or employer and find a way to solve it. In my opinion, the difference between success and failure is finding others with the same itch.

If you stop reading here, keep the following in mind: the pain you set out to solve should not be only yours; otherwise, you run the risk of creating a product just for yourself.

There are benefits and pitfalls in being your own customer. This was the challenge we faced when we started Treevox . We had to generate potential clients and manage them in an organized way, which allowed us good follow-up and, most importantly, ensured that no client was overlooked by relying on those typical Excel spreadsheets or getting lost among the hundreds of emails in your inbox.

Advantages of Scratching Your Own Itch

Solving a problem you have experienced yourself is really nothing new. Entrepreneurs have been doing it for centuries.

1. You have a deep understanding of your customers’ pain

Experiencing the problem firsthand means you have a very deep understanding of the pain and its impact on your business.

2. You know the benefits

You know that your solution really works because you inevitably use your own product. This means you have a great understanding and appreciation of the benefits your solution provides.

3. You are a true believer in your product

Having the problem at home and working on what you consider the best solution means you have a deep faith in your solution (or at least you should, like having a restaurant and not eating your own food). This motivation and drive can even be contagious to those around you.

The best startups generally come from someone who needs to scratch an itch. - Michael Arrington, TechCrunch.

There are many examples of successful companies that started with this startup model. For example, the successful Airbnb started this way. In an interview with The Telegraph, titled Airbnb: The story behind the $1.3bn room-letting website , they said:

“Airbnb began in 2007 when Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky, both 27, who met five years earlier at the Rhode Island School of Design, were struggling to pay rent.

There was a design conference in San Francisco and the city’s hotels were full, so they came up with the idea of renting three air beds on the floor of their living room and preparing breakfast for their guests.

The next day they created a website; six days later they had a 30-year-old Indian man, a 35-year-old woman from Boston, and a 45-year-old father of four from Utah sleeping on their floor. They charged $80 each per night.”

Other examples of the “scratch your own itch” startup model include the story of Zach Sims, founder of the popular learning site CodeAcademy. In this article, they write 9 startup lessons from CodeAcademy founder :

“Sims came up with the idea for Codecademy when he tried to learn to code from books and realized that the knowledge never stuck. He knew that the best way to learn was by working on real projects and building real things. As a result, he integrated this experience into Codecademy so that people could learn by doing.

Since Sims himself did not know how to code, he was patient zero with the product. He recalls: “If I could learn to code well with Codecademy, that would mean many other people could learn too.” Although many of his previous ideas did not work, what was different about Codecademy was that they were building it for Sims.

Sims says: “It’s much easier to build for yourself. You know what works and what doesn’t.”

Cons of Scratching Your Own Itch

While there are some very valid reasons to follow this model of discovering your own problems and solving them, there are also some reasons not to adopt this approach.

1. Being alone with your problem

You may assume that everyone in your position perceives your pain as a big problem; but maybe they don’t see it the same way you do. The goal of creating a product is to sell it to someone else, not yourself; make sure there are others equally motivated to solve the same problem.

2. Believing the pain is much greater than it is

It is very easy for most people to exaggerate the problems they face in their personal or professional life. Some things may seem absolutely overwhelming until you stop and evaluate the real impact.

3. Being too focused on your need

You might end up being too focused on yourself and creating a product exclusively for you.

4. Ignoring real competition

Maybe you have seen others trying to solve the same problem, but their solutions didn’t convince you personally, perhaps because they weren’t the right fit for you; this doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t ideal for others in your situation.

Personally, I found other solutions to the pain we wanted to solve, and two things happened: first, they were exorbitantly priced, and second, they were made for the complexity of large companies with long implementation times. We just wanted to manage clients on an intuitive platform that exclusively led us to close deals and allowed us to focus on what we did best, selling.

In this article published by Harvard Business Review, When “Scratch Your Own Itch” is Dangerous Advice for Entrepreneurs , the writer states:

“But scratching your own itch will mislead you if you are a high-performing consumer whose problem arises because existing products don’t work well enough; in other words, if the itch is the result of a performance gap.

Building a business around a higher-performing product means competing head-on with a powerful incumbent that has the information, resources, and motivation to crush your business.”

Five Ways to Validate Your Idea Quickly

So, you’ve found an internal problem and believe you can solve it, not just that, but also offer the solution to others in the same situation. The first step to succeeding with this model is to understand if there are others with the same problem.

1. Weigh this pain you have

Is it worth solving the problem you are considering solving? As humans, we often perceive a pain point as much larger than it really is. If it really isn’t as important as you initially thought, ask yourself: would you pay for a solution?

2. Research your potential competitors

Before you start planning your business much further, you need to spend a lot of time asking yourself “How is this currently being solved?” and discovering all the alternative solutions or potential competitors you can.

I have found that competitors or alternatives to your solution are not naturally obvious; one of our competitors, for example, could be a simple spreadsheet or an email. While we know that our solution is much more effective, it doesn’t mean your market feels the same.

3. Plan your solution

I don’t suggest spending dozens of hours creating a business plan at this point; however, I suggest completing a Canvas with your idea.

4. Talk to potential customers

The next step is to demonstrate or explain the suggested solution to as many potential customers as you can find, and ask them what other things they would like to see in this solution.

5. Ask if they would pay for your solution

Once you have successfully validated that others share your pain and would be open to a solution like yours, the next step is to ask if they are interested enough to consider buying your solution.

In Summary

When creating Treevox , we found that the scratch your own itch model worked for us; however, every situation is very different.

Make sure to do enough pre-planning, brainstorming solutions, and most importantly, customer validation before investing much time or money in creating your next big business.