Streamline Menus

In the Summer of 2021 my friend Seth from Astra Nova a middle school I had just graduated from as a part time student invited me to join him and another friend in creating a digital restaurant menu service that he called Streamline Menus. My role was CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), and I was responsible for some of the website’s design and getting restaurants to use our software. By the end of that summer after many cold calls, I was finally able to get a restaurant chain called Armadillo Willy’s to entertain the idea of using our software. I met multiple times with the president Kevin Roberts who gave me valuable feedback on our product as we were refining it. Even though our product failed and we later ended our project. The lessons I learned were immense, and if I had and infinite number of lifetimes I would do it again in every single one. First it got rid of my fear of rejection, there were many restaurants that simply weren’t interested or wouldn’t even answer back. It was sort of a rejection therapy because every time I reached out to a restaurant and they weren’t interested, it oddly made me less afraid to reach out to the next. Second, it made me realize the importance of not creating a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. As people weren’t struggling with menus, the existing menu solutions were already good enough. Our product was only slightly better than what was already available and slightly better doesn’t cut it. It made me realize that in order for a new product to have a chance of breaking into a new market it needs to be substantially better than what is already available. When someone uses they should say “Wow! How could I ever go back!”, not “Oh cool so it’s like [insert competitor name].”

Additionally, I think this experience made realize that it is very tempting for people to say “I want to make a company let’s go find a problem and solve it”. But I feel this is the wrong order to go about it because more often then not your just going to generate a bunch of solutions to problems that don’t exist. Also I feel generally the motivations to these people are less about solving a problem but more of “I want to make a lot of money”. I have nothing against people wanting to make money, but making a company is also very difficult. There are a lot of moving parts, and especially in the early stages if your a small team like we were, your essentially doing everything. Your expending all your available time and resources and if your doing that just to make a product that is slightly better I think you are going to have a great difficulty motivating yourself to move forward. Because essentially in the early stage your just throwing your time and resources into a void with the hope that in future it will become something. Now for the first few days, you may power through the void on the initial high of your idea. You and your co-founders may be talking/thinking about what you are going to do when you are rich. But as the void progresses doubt comes into the equation. You start asking yourself “am I throwing all this time and resources for nothing?” or “Our product is only slightly better, will it even make a difference?” Now maybe your can power through this void for a couple of weeks, but what if it lasts months? What if it lasts years? If your not working on something that you think is substantially better than what is available and make your users say “Wow! How could I ever go back!” then I think it is almost certain that you will quit.

When I made my social media account on TikTok to post videos I made about space I went through such a phase. But my goal wasn’t I want to get a bunch of followers and become and internet celebrity or something of that nature. My goal was I want to make videos that captivate people about space. So I went through a dark period of roughly 9 months of posting videos daily. In that period I posted hundreds of videos and got essentially no viewership, but I kept on improving my videos, I saw what worked and what didn’t. But I didn’t quit because what pushed me was wanting to make videos that truly captivated people about space. If my goal were just getting followers, it would have been much easier to quit. But because I was working towards something I am passionate about it was easier to push forward. Because I am passionate about space it made writing scripts and editing videos feel slightly less like a chore. I will never forget the thrill of getting my first 1million views I had exited the void.

But back to choosing a problem, from what this experience has taught me I now feel the best way to choose a problem is to let it choose you. You shouldn’t go looking for a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. You shouldn’t make a company with the goal of making yourself rich (I mean you can, I’m not against making yourself rich, but your going to have a hard time finding the motivation to push forward). Rather you should be prepared to identify a problem as you come across it (letting the problem find you) and you would be surprised as to how many problems will find you once you stop looking for them.