The Startup Ideas Podcast
The best businesses are built at the intersection of emerging technology, community, and real human needs.
Vitamin vs Painkiller Business Classification
Framework for evaluating whether a product solves a critical problem (painkiller) or provides nice-to-have benefits (vitamin)
Decision Rule
Build painkillers, avoid vitamins. If users desperately need your solution and will pay premium prices, it's a painkiller. If it's just nice-to-have improvement, it's a vitamin.
How It Works
Painkillers solve urgent, frequent problems with high willingness-to-pay. Vitamins provide gradual benefits that users can easily skip or substitute.
Failure Modes
Mistaking user interest for desperate need
Building vitamins and expecting painkiller pricing/retention
Ignoring competitive painkillers in favor of unique vitamins
Example Decision
“Dog allergy scanner is a painkiller because owners desperately want to avoid making their pets sick. A generic dog health tracker is a vitamin because it's just nice-to-have information.”