Tech Founders Must Prioritize the Problem Before Their Solution

When I left Los Alamos National Laboratory to start a company 11 years ago, I thought my team was ready. We had developed a new class of quantum dots—nanoscale particles of light-emitting semiconductor material that can be used in displays, solar cells, and more. Our technology was safer, more stable, and less expensive than existing quantum-dot materials. The technical advantages were real, but I quickly learned that no amount of scientific merit guarantees market success.

For many tech-startup founders, this is an uncomfortable but necessary realization. You can build an elegant solution, but if it doesn’t solve a meaningful problem in the market, it won’t go anywhere commercially. The earlier you embrace that lesson, the better your odds of success.

Your Invention Isn’t the Business

My background is in research. I have a Ph.D. in materials science from the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign, and I did a postdoc at Los Alamos, in New Mexico, working on nanomaterials in the chemistry division. My focus was always on advancing scientific knowledge, publishing papers, and in some cases filing patents. Like many researchers, I eventually grew tired of chasing citations and wanted to apply that work to the real world.

That’s why I started UbiQD. We had a material that solved the technical shortcomings of conventional quantum dots, which require toxic heavy metals like cadmium or lead and involve expensive manufacturing processes. However, when we first introduced it to the market, the conversations we had were eye-opening. People didn’t care about the material for its own sake. They cared about whether it solved their problem, and the severity of the problem defined their urgency.

My advice: If you can’t clearly explain how your technology makes someone’s life easier, safer, more sustainable, or more profitable, you’re not ready to sell it.

“Throwing It Over the Fence” Doesn’t Work

Our early thinking was overly simplistic: Create better quantum dots, scale production, and let customers apply the technology to the industries that benefit from quantum dots’ ability to manipulate light. We figured, if we make it, the customers will come.

To speed things up, we offered research-grade samples for testing. A number of early adopters asked for samples, but that “throw it over the fence” approach typically doesn’t work with a novel enabling technology. Whether it’s advanced materials, hardware, or software, you can’t expect customers to figure out what solution works best; that’s your job.

So before scaling your tech, spend time with potential customers. Listen more than you talk and identify their true pain points. Ask them what keeps them up at night. That’s where the real opportunities lie: in the chances to provide a must-have painkiller, rather than a nice-to-have daily vitamin.

Shelve the Ideas That Don’t Fit

One of the hardest lessons tech founders must learn is how to recognize when a beloved idea doesn’t align with market needs.

Take solar windows for greenhouses, one of the ideas we thought would be a hit but then had to shelve. Greenhouses spend a lot on electricity, so it seemed logical that they’d want to generate electricity directly in the facade of the greenhouse. However, growers told us their biggest concern was crop yield, not operational costs. Light-absorbing windows could potentially cause a slight reduction in yield, and any such reduction—even with energy savings—would likely hurt their bottom line.

That’s where the real opportunities lie: in the chances to provide a must-have painkiller, rather than a nice-to-have daily vitamin.

So we paused the solar-window idea in 2018 and focused instead on a simpler, higher-impact product: greenhouse films that shift the color of light to help plants grow faster. The growers cared about yield, and that’s what we addressed using our technology. This agricultural application is now one of UbiQD’s main focus areas.

Don’t get emotionally attached to one application or use case. If your company is built on a platform technology, stay flexible. The market will tell you where your technology fits—and where it doesn’t.

Competition Means You’re on the Right Track

Many founders dread competition. I see it differently. When we entered the agriculture space, we saw other startups and a few large companies exploring similar ideas. That wasn’t discouraging. It was validating. If no one else is working on the problem, it might not be a worthwhile opportunity.

Some startups also try to stay under the radar to gain an edge. But if potential partners or early customers don’t know you’re working on a problem, they can’t contribute to, challenge, or help accelerate your solution. That said, differentiation matters. Our edge comes from robust intellectual property, technical depth, and years of hard-earned data. We’ve had lots of help and input from outside the company, and some of our best customers found us first.

Expect and embrace competition, and don’t be shy about it. Just make sure you have a defendable advantage—whether through technology, partnerships, data, or expertise.

Earn the Right to Expand

As you begin to succeed in one market, you’ll be tempted to expand quickly to others. But be cautious about moving too quickly. We’ve turned down plenty of tempting market opportunities over the years because we hadn’t earned the right to go after them yet.

For example, applying our materials to cosmetics or paints is exciting, but until we achieved sufficient production scale and cost reduction, it didn’t make sense economically. Now that we’ve lowered costs and built better infrastructure, those markets are back on the table, but we understood this only after studying potential customers and their needs.

Build scale and generate revenue in your first market, and only then explore adjacent opportunities.

Advice I Wish I Had Heard Earlier

If I could give my younger self just one piece of advice, it would be this: Fall in love with the problem first, then the solution.

As a tech-company founder, I spent years perfecting our technology and publishing papers about how great the science of the solutions is. Building a company, though, also means understanding your customers and the economics of solving their problems.

Science and engineering are critical, but so are customer discovery, product management, and market research. Those skills are essential, and you’ll probably need them sooner than you think.

So get out of the lab. Talk to potential customers as early as possible. Be ready to adapt as you listen. And remember, the value of your technology comes from the problem it solves.