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As of 2025, Highline Beta argues that successful venture building requires identifying five specific types of customer problems—urgent, frequent, high-stakes, emerging, and unspoken—while actively avoiding hypothetical, trendy, low-friction, and vague problems that waste development resources.
Teams waste significant time chasing problems that aren't worth solving, when they should focus on real, solvable, strategic problems that lead to investable ventures. The five problem types worth pursuing include urgent problems where people are already trying poor solutions, frequent daily or weekly issues, high-stakes situations where users will pay premium prices, emerging problems from regulatory or technological shifts, and unspoken problems revealed through user behavior patterns. Highline Beta specifically warns against four problem categories that should be avoided: hypothetical problems where users say "I might use that," trendy problems with high noise but low insight, low-friction mild annoyances, and vague problems too fuzzy to describe clearly.
Urgent problems reveal themselves when users talk about them without being asked, appearing in complaints, hacked-together workarounds, and late-night Reddit threads. The critical signal is that people are already trying to solve the problem, just poorly. These problems are considered gold mines because users are already motivated—teams just need to build a better solution.
Unspoken problems are the hardest to find but can be identified through symptoms like shame, friction, fatigue, and indecision in user behavior. The key signal is when users make inconsistent choices or compromises that don't make sense at face value. These problems require finding patterns through stories and smart follow-ups, often revealing underserved needs that competitors miss.
Venture builders should steer clear of four specific problem types that waste resources. Hypothetical problems where users say "I might use that" typically mean they won't actually adopt the solution. Trendy problems create high noise with low insight, and if everyone is chasing them, teams are probably too late to market. Low-friction mild annoyances don't drive user adoption, and vague problems that are too fuzzy to describe clearly are too fuzzy to solve effectively.
High-stakes problems like taxes, moving, or healthcare decisions don't occur often, but when they do, they really matter to users. The signal that makes them valuable is that people are willing to spend significant time or money to make these problems disappear. These problems can support premium positioning and strong business models, provided teams can reach users at the right moment when the problem occurs.
Not all problems are created equal.
Some are gold mines. Others are noise.
And too many teams waste time chasing problems that aren’t worth solving.
Your job is to find real, solvable, strategic problems—the kind that lead to investable ventures. When running initial discovery into a problem or opportunity, look for very specific signals.
Here’s how to identify the early signals for a problem that actually matters.
These are the ones users talk about without being asked. They show up in complaints, hacked-together workarounds, and late-night Reddit threads.
Signal: People are already trying to solve it—just poorly.
These problems are gold. Users are motivated. We just need to build a better way.
They happen daily or weekly. Chronic issues, not rare emergencies.
Signal: Recurring frustration, wasted time, or avoidable effort.
Even if the pain isn’t severe, frequency creates opportunity. Solve it well, and users will feel the difference fast.
These don’t happen often, but when they do, they really matter. Think: taxes, moving, healthcare decisions.
Signal: People are willing to spend time or money to make the problem go away.
These can support premium positioning and strong business models, if you can reach users at the right moment.
New behaviors. New pain. New opportunity.
These show up when regulation, technology, or cultural norms shift faster than the solutions around them.
Signal: User behavior is changing faster than the market is responding.
Track these closely. They’re high-risk, high-reward. Timing is everything.
The hardest to find. People may not say them out loud, but you can see the symptoms: shame, friction, fatigue, indecision.
Signal: Users make inconsistent choices or compromises that don’t make sense at face value.
Find these through stories, patterns, and smart follow-ups. They often reveal underserved needs others miss.
You should actively steer clear of:
