{"id":316019,"date":"2026-10-28T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/316019\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T12:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T12:00:07","slug":"how-can-startup-founders-validate-a-problem-google-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/316019\/","title":{"rendered":"How can startup founders validate a problem? Google it"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A common mistake founders make is building a product and going after customers before they fully explore the problem, local leaders in Philadelphia say.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before thinking about growth and scaling, founders need to step back and make sure what they\u2019re offering is a logical solution for an actual problem people face, Sylvester Mobley, managing partner at <a href=\"https:\/\/plainsightcapital.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Plain Sight Capital<\/a>, said on a panel at <a href=\"https:\/\/innovationwknd.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Innovation Weekend\u2019s<\/a> Capital House last Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI see a lot of companies who build a product really well,\u201d Mobley said. \u201cThey build an amazing product, but never ask if we were building the right thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hosted by entrepreneur support org <a href=\"https:\/\/1phl.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">1Philadelphia<\/a> in partnership with <a href=\"https:\/\/technical.ly\/company\/ben-franklin-technology-partners\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ben Franklin Technology Partners<\/a>, the fifth edition of Innovation Weekend brought four days of programming for Philly\u2019s tech and startup ecosystem. As part of it, Capital House was a daylong conference focused on connecting startup leaders and investors and sharing tips for fundraising.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mobley\u2019s panel, titled \u201cWhat Growth Requires: The Case for Capability,\u201d focused on steps founders can take to build a solid foundation for their company. One of the most important steps: Come up with a clear problem statement based on research.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And it doesn\u2019t have to be complicated, per Mobley, who invests in early-stage startups. A good way to start? Just Google it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat\u2019s a really quick sanity check,\u201d he said. \u201cShould I be doing this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, there has to be a limit on how long entrepreneurs spend on the validation process, added co-panelist Tiara Durham, director of commercialization programming at <a href=\"https:\/\/sciencecenter.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Science Center<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many founders spend too much time working on something that isn\u2019t going anywhere, she said. One way to avoid that is by choosing an end goal at the beginning of the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMotion for the sake of motion [means] you\u2019re going to burn through your cash, you\u2019re going to burn through relationships,\u201d Durham said. \u201cYou want to have a defined endpoint.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Flexible founders who grow with their company<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alongside research strategy, founders\u2019 attitudes and personalities also factor into how successfully companies will work through the validation process, according to both Mobley and Durham.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Specifically, founders need \u201clearning velocity,\u201d Mobley said, meaning they should be open to information that doesn\u2019t jive with their original idea, and be able to quickly pivot to align more closely with what the market is telling them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mobley looks for founders who are coachable. That flexibility means they are open to critique and willing to learn.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even when a founder is eager to learn, they might not be the right person to lead a company, Durham said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, life sciences companies are often started by researchers or scientists who have deep knowledge about the problem at hand. But that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean they know how commercialization works, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In that case, founders either need to build a team that can fill the gaps or step into a different role and let someone with more experience take the reins.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cKnow what you know and know what you don\u2019t know,\u201d Durham said. \u201cSurround yourself with people who can pressure test that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This story is made possible thanks to support from<a href=\"https:\/\/technical.ly\/company\/ben-franklin-technology-partners\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania<\/a>, a nonprofit that leads the Philadelphia region\u2019s equitable economic growth by nurturing and investing in innovative, early-stage companies, and through purposeful involvement in regional and national initiatives. All stories are independently reported, with no partner review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A common mistake founders make is building a product and going after customers before they fully explore the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5398,1756,69,71,70,5399],"class_list":["post-316019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-entrepreneurs","tag-events","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-startups"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}