When Buffy set out to build a cozy, cooling, eco-friendly comforter, they encountered an unexpected problem in manufacturing -- and had to solve it by making the item less perfect.
Naomi Kelman is the CEO of Willow, a sleek breast pump that launched earlier this year. To get it just right, she and her team surveyed moms across the country.
Karen John's startup, Heartwork, creates sleek, functional office furniture. But before she launched, she had to focus her idea, support its development and ignore her family's advice.
After an entrepreneurial failure, Miko Branch launched a new business out of necessity -- and identified a lucrative, underserved market in the haircare industry.
Knix founder Joanna Griffiths built a company to serve women -- all women. When her wholesale partners were failing her customers, she made a drastic pivot.
Former ad exec Georgina Gooley had never launched a brand before. By getting to know the space she was entering -- and the consumers she hoped to serve -- she set out to disrupt the shaving industry.
Instead of looking outward to identify problems to solve and markets to serve, entrepreneurs should focus on their own frustrations. The unique solutions they come up with will have a natural market filled with customers just like them.
Don't make the "build it and they will come" mistake with teachers. Without a proven product that fulfills a need of theirs or their students, any attempts to sell to teachers will tank.