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David Cummings on Startups

2 resources from David Cummings on Startups we point founders to, and the questions each answers.

✍️ Essay
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it This is the short, canonical piece that popularized the painkiller versus vitamin test, from a founder who has actually built and funded companies. It gives you a clean three way sort (candy, vitamin, painkiller) so you can be honest about where your idea really sits before you build. Treat it as a starting lens, not a verdict: it tells you the question to keep asking, which is whether people are in enough pain to pay now.

Candy, Vitamins, or Painkillers for Startups

From David Cummings on Startups by David Cummings About a 3 minute read

  • Painkillers solve an urgent, pressing problem people will pay to make go away; vitamins are nice improvements that are easy to postpone.
  • Candy can win big as a fad but is unpredictable, so know which of the three you are actually selling before you set strategy.
  • If you cannot clearly call your product a painkiller, that is a signal to keep digging into the problem, not to keep polishing the solution.
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Answers How do I know if the job I'm solving is a painkiller people will pay for or just a vitamin they'd like?
✍️ Essay
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it This short post names the exact trap behind competitor anxiety: studying rivals feels like work but takes almost no effort, while the work that actually moves your product (talking to customers) is much harder, so the easy thing crowds out the important thing. Cummings gives one concrete rule to break the spiral: whenever a competitor announcement is pulling at you, email three customers to book check-ins instead. It is the discipline that keeps competitor monitoring healthy rather than compulsive.

Customer Obsessed and Competitor Aware

From David Cummings on Startups by David Cummings About a 3 minute read

  • Reading competitor sites is easy and feels productive, which is exactly why it quietly displaces the harder, higher-value work of talking to customers.
  • The fix is a swap, not willpower: redirect the urge to check a rival into a concrete customer action, like booking three check-ins.
  • Aim for customer obsessed and competitor aware, not the other way around.
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Answers How do I keep tracking competitors without it turning into a daily anxiety spiral that distracts me from my own product?