David Cummings on Startups

Candy, Vitamins, or Painkillers for Startups

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David Cummings

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At a Flashpoint event several weeks ago one of the startups was giving their pitch. After the pitch was done there was two minutes for questions. Not quite understanding what they did I asked a simple question: is your product like candy, vitamins, or pain-killers for your market?

After a long pause with no response, I volunteered a quick definition of each:

  • Candy – a nice-to-have that people enjoy and can be wildly successful if it becomes a fad (like Beanie Babies)
  • Vitamins – used to help augment and improve things but sometimes harder to quantify
  • Pain-killers – critical problems that need to be alleviated

Startups need to think through this question early on and incorporate thoughts around it in their strategy and marketing.

What else? What do you think of the candy, vitamins, or pain-killers analogy for startups? Read Stephen Flemming’s post on painkillers from four years ago.

Comments

17 responses to “Candy, Vitamins, or Painkillers for Startups”

  1. Mike Keen Avatar
    Mike Keen

    I haven’t been asked this question by an investor or potential investor before and I find it very interesting. I had the opportunity to pitch an idea to you and the other partners at Shotput awhile back and if I was asked then, I probably would have said that we were Flinstone’s Vitamins. Solving a problem but wrapping it in a fun, game-like solution. Since our recent pivot, I’d definitely say we’re a pure vitamin. Really interesting post that got me thinking.

    Reply
  2. Homer Bartlett Avatar
    Homer Bartlett

    What about performance-enhancing drug? Or is that just an extreme form of vitamin?

    Reply
  3. Top 7 Entrepreneurial Lessons from Pardot Expanded | 10,000 Startup Hours – David Cummings

    […] Sell pain killers and not vitamins: after a customer successfully rolled the software out to their sales and marketing teams, […]

    Reply
  4. When All Paying Customers are Friendlies | 10,000 Startup Hours – David Cummings

    […] revenue mark. The idea sounds plausible but it isn’t completely clear if the product is candy, a pain killer, or a vitamin due to the lack of domain expertise by the angel investor. As the angel investor starts to dig in […]

    Reply
  5. Importance of Idea vs Team | 10,000 Startup Hours – David Cummings

    […] ideas, especially pain killers over vitamins, are harder to come by since most ideas are vitamins (or […]

    Reply
  6. Toothbrush, Vitamins And Pain Killers | Noise. Branded Avatar
    Toothbrush, Vitamins And Pain Killers | Noise. Branded

    […] That’s when I hit upon this very useful question that VCs are known to ask entrepreneurs. (source) […]

    Reply
  7. Pain Points are Relative

    […] Cummings, a successful entrepreneur from Atlanta, talks often about “selling painkillers, not vitamins.” For a while I thought a painkiller must be different product than a vitamin.  But now I […]

    Reply
  8. badrirag Avatar
    badrirag

    David,

    I consider the distinction between vitamins and pain killers very simplistic and blown out of proportion. http://yourstory.in/2013/09/stumped-when-asked-is-your-offering-a-pain-killer-or-a-vitamin-dont/

    Badri

    Reply
  9. Time to Shut Down a Startup | David Cummings on Startups

    […] Even after multiple iterations it’s clear that the product is a weak vitamin and not a pain killer […]

    Reply
  10. Product Managers Need to Look for Signs a Product is Pain Killer and not a Vitamin | Patrick Muir

    […] David Cummings wrote a great blog post about how product managers need to look for signs to answer if their product like candy, vitamins, or pain-killers for their market. […]

    Reply
  11. Fundraising While Still Building a Business | David Cummings on Startups

    […] appeared to be a huge opportunity and all signs from our customers pointed to the product being a pain killer and not a vitamin. The next logical step was to raise venture capital and build a huge company. Or so we […]

    Reply
  12. The Back Story on FullStory | David Cummings on Startups

    […] After building a very slick project management tool for marketers, and working closely with end-users, they finally reached the conclusion that marketers weren’t looking for new project management tools and that the agile process was many years away from becoming mainstream. Many marketing departments were happy with Basecamp or Google Spreadsheets to coordinate projects. They had built a vitamin and not a pain-killer. […]

    Reply
  13. The Market Opportunity for Marketing Automation in 2009 | David Cummings on Startups

    […] though we had over $1 million in annual recurring revenue and customers said it was a must-have (a painkiller), investors didn’t think it was a big enough market opportunity. Now that the space has […]

    Reply
  14. Connect the Product to the Wallet | David Cummings on Startups

    […] connects the product with the wallet in a way it never was before. Similar to the idea of candy, pain-killers, or vitamins, products that can clearly demonstrate an increase in revenue for the customer are more […]

    Reply
  15. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    I think recently I always (by accident) made candy businesses and recently vitamins. Making painkillers is hard but always trying to evolve into one.

    Reply
  16. 3 Main Reasons Entrepreneurs Succeed | David Cummings on Startups

    […] Must-Have vs Nice-to-Have Product – Too many products, especially tech products, are nice-to-have apps that do something that’s OK but not revolutionary. This is especially hard because it’s not always obvious early on just how valuable and impactful a product can be before it’s fleshed out (see Candy, Vitamins, and Pain-Killers). […]

    Reply
  17. The First Question Entrepreneurs Should Ask Before Starting a Business – Christopher Mance II

    […] back when I read a blog post written by serial entrepreneur and founder of Atlanta Tech Village, David Cummings.  In this post he discusses a simple question he asked an entrepreneur pitching an idea to […]

    Reply

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