Solving real pain is the only shortcut to demand.
I once paid twenty dollars for a garbage bag at a concert just to stay out of the freezing cold rain.
I remember standing there, soaked and shivering, while a guy walked by selling garbage bags for twenty bucks each. Not ponchos. Not jackets. Garbage bags.
And I paid it without thinking twice.
In that moment, the pain was so real that the value felt obvious. I did not care what it looked like. I did not care what it cost. I cared about staying warm and getting through the night.
That is supply and demand in its purest form.
When the pain is high enough, people will always pay a premium. They are not buying the product. They are buying relief. They are buying safety. They are buying a way out of discomfort.
Every great startup is built on that exact moment. The moment when someone is cold and tired and desperate for a solution, and your product becomes the garbage bag that saves their night.
If you want people to pay for what you are building, solve a real pain. Feel their discomfort. Understand the urgency. And build the thing that makes them say yes without hesitation.
Solve a real pain and people will pay real money.
“The night I paid twenty dollars for a garbage bag” sounds like someone in group therapy at rehab would say while describing the moment they realized their addiction had hit rock bottom and that they needed to get clean.