Hi – it’s Rebecca.

Over the last few weeks in this newsletter series, we’ve talked about a lot of different leaks.

Chasing products. Skipping validation. Starting another store. Building on borrowed platforms. Scaling too early. Adding complexity. Chasing traffic.

On the surface, they all look like different problems.

Looking back, I don’t think they are.

I think they’re all versions of the same problem:

I couldn’t see the real leak.

The Hard Part Isn’t Fixing Problems

You probably think ecommerce is about finding solutions. I’ve come to believe it’s mostly about finding the right problem.

Because once you identify the real leak, the solution is often surprisingly obvious.

The challenge is that the real leak is rarely where we first look.

Sales are down? We blame traffic.

Growth stalls? We blame the market.

Conversions fall? We blame the platform.

Progress slows? We start something new.

I’ve done all of those things.

The uncomfortable truth is that many founders don’t have a solution problem. They have a diagnosis problem.

The Blind Spot Solution

The bucket is leaking. I know. Where?

🤣

That might be the most honest founder conversation I’ve ever heard.

Because before you can fix a leak, you have to find it – and that’s often harder than it sounds.

The leak might be:

the offer
the positioning
the customer journey
the supplier
the economics
the founder

Sometimes the leak isn’t in the business at all. It’s in the assumptions behind the business.

Why Blind Spots Are Expensive

You may not fail because you aren’t working hard enough. You’re struggling because you are likely working hard on the wrong thing.

I’ve spent months solving problems that weren’t actually problems. Building things that didn’t need building. Improving things customers didn’t care about. Optimising things that weren’t constraints.

Working harder only made me move faster in the wrong direction.

That’s the danger of a blind spot.

Effort doesn’t fix it. More effort often makes it worse.

Every Leak in This Newsletter Had One Thing in Common

I couldn’t see it at the time.

The winning product wasn’t the answer. The second store wasn’t the answer. More traffic wasn’t the answer. More research wasn’t the answer. More complexity wasn’t the answer. Scale wasn’t the answer.

None of those lessons were obvious while I was living them. That’s why they became leaks.

If they were obvious, I would have fixed them much sooner!

Founder Thinking

Founders don’t just ask:

“How do I grow?”

They ask:

“What am I missing?”

That’s a very different question.

Before looking for a solution: confirm the diagnosis. Before scaling: confirm the constraint. Before adding: confirm the bottleneck. Before acting: find the leak.

Because the leak you can see is rarely the leak causing the problem.

A Question Worth Considering

What’s the problem you’ve been trying to solve for the last six months?

Now ask yourself:

Is that actually the problem? Or is it simply the most visible symptom?

The answer might change everything.

This Week’s Leak

The biggest leaks are rarely hidden. They’re usually sitting in plain sight.

The challenge is seeing them.

Because the founder’s job isn’t to find more water. It’s to find the leak.

What do you think – where might your blind spot be hiding? :).

Until next Saturday,

Rebecca

Other Leaks You Might Have Missed…

#011. comes out next week! Sign up to get it first and keep informed…
#004. The Amazon Shutdown That Changed Everything!
#001. The Opportunity Trap: Why Founders Keep Searching For Another Bucket

#010. Why The Biggest Leak Is Often The One You Can’t See!