Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution

A Handbook for Entrepreneurs

By: Uri Levine

Narrated by: Perry Daniels

Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Unicorns—companies that reach a valuation of more than $1 billion—are rare. Uri Levine has built two.

And in Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution, he shows you just how he did it.

As the cofounder of Waze—the world's leading commuting and navigation app with more than 700 million users to date, and which Google acquired in 2013 for $1.15 billion—Levine is committed to spreading entrepreneurial thinking so that other founders, managers, and employees in the tech space can build their own highly valued companies.

Levine offers an inside look at the creation and sale of Waze and his second unicorn, Moovit, revealing the formula that drove those companies to compete with industry veterans and giants alike. He offers tips on: firing and hiring; disrupting "broken" markets; raising funding; understanding your users; reaching product market fit; making scale-up decisions; going global; and deciding when to sell.

Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution empowers you to build a successful business by identifying your consumers' biggest problems and disrupting the inefficient markets that currently serve them.

©2023 Uri Levine (P)2023 Ascent Audio

Good summary of business wisdom

I need to read / listen to this once a year to absorb it. It may take me 5 years to do that. I love Uri's optimism and cherish his sharing experience in this format. Highly recommended.

Interesting

Working at a startup, I’m starting to get a sense of some of the things our ceo must be dealing with day to day.

A must read for any entrepreneur out there !!!

I had a pleasure hearing Uri speaks about the waze unconventional journey years ago. which left me inspired as an entrepreneur to go a concurred my dream company. Having Uri spell out in his book every step of the way in such simple and logical way make it so beneficial and more encouraging. this book is a must read for any entrepreneur. Even for more than experienced one.
It will literally fill your blind spots about the start up journey. I give it a 10 stars 🙏🏻

Inspiration to Pull the Trigger

This book was a great reality check for me, as I have an idea for an app, but I am not a tech person and had no idea where to get started. The reality check that I got at the beginning of this book regarding how much time it would take and how much I would have to work for capital got me terrified and so I put the audio down for about 6 months and called it quits on my dream of creating an app. it just seemed too hard. Later, I decided to revisit it and continue where I left off. Listening to it all the way through helped me to realize that I AM capable of doing this. Today is the first day of the rest of my life and if others can do it, so can I! Through reading this book I was given the tools and the inspiration to go for it. I quit my job and am going to go for it dull time. Wish me luck!

A Great Hand Book for First-Time Founders

A great blend of the theoretical and practical, the strategic and the tactical! I had the good fortune of meeting Uri Levine in NYC in June 2014, where the seeds of what eventually evolved into my early-stage supply chain technology investment thesis were originally sown. Based on that conversation, I wish Uri had narrated this book rather than having someone else do it.

Otherwise, it’s a real hand book. I know I’ll be using it often to develop notes for conversations with founders building startups in the REFASHIOND Ventures portfolio, and even for myself as my cofounder and I build our investment firm.

From a successful entrepreneur: this advice is perfect

I am an exited founder (sold my SaaS company for over $1bn) and Uri’s book is spot on. I found myself nodding along to every lesson he shares. I have often found myself giving many of these pieces of advice; although, never as interestingly or succinctly. You can save years of “wandering” and trial and error — not to mention tens of millions of investors’ dollars — by reading this book and heeding Uri’s advice.

This book is among the best ROI investments (on time) you can make in developing your startup. It will be my go-to gift to budding entrepreneurs from here on!

An MBA for every entrepreneur

Uri explains every step that an entrepreneur will go tru in their journey as a CEO. Highly recommend to understand the fascinating world of startups.

Great guide for founders

This book is one of the most detailed and insightful start up books I’ve read

Loved it as a Founder myself I highly recommend it

The information here was just incredible for a founder of a start up to give such practical input to CEOs is incredible check it out I highly recommend it

Solid insights for tech startups, but not as much as small business

Loved learning from Uri. I heard him on Lenny’s podcast and picked up the book. Some of the info is ahead of my current stage as an entrepreneur but it’s good to know what’s ahead. He’s clearly had outrageous success. One thing I wish: Parts of the book felt incomplete, like they started to explain something and then went into a different topic. Basically, it goes wide and, sometimes but not always, deep. Still, it’s very valuable, especially the chapter on product market fit. It’s certainly more geared toward tech startups and aspiring unicorns, not small businesses which is the world where I operate. Nevertheless, lots of lessons learned! Thank you, Uri!