Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs, Updated Edition
Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs, Updated Edition
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Watch for our new edition to be published on February 2025
Unicorns—companies that reach a valuation of more than one billion—are rare. Uri Levine has built two – Waze and Moovit. In his book, Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution, he shows you just how he did it.
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.
In the new edition of his book, to be published in February 2025 Levine dedicates a new chapter to CRISIS MANAGEMENT – SURVIVAL MODE for those coping with a major crisis, which we’ll all experience at least once throughout our startup journey.
In the chapter, he shares his attitude to crisis management: “It doesn’t matter what kind of crisis it is. The fact that the market is unfavorable for everyone, not just your company, doesn’t matter.
“The fact that other people also suffer from the same problems is of no importance. It is your responsibility to solve your problems, whether it is harder due to external reasons or not. Should this prevent you from building one? No. This is why I believe resilience has become an essential skill in today’s startup world.”
These are the main topics of the book:
Unicorns—companies that reach a valuation of more than one billion—are rare. Uri Levine has built two – Waze and Moovit. In his book, Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution, he shows you just how he did it.
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.
In the new edition of his book, to be published in February 2025 Levine dedicates a new chapter to CRISIS MANAGEMENT – SURVIVAL MODE for those coping with a major crisis, which we’ll all experience at least once throughout our startup journey.
In the chapter, he shares his attitude to crisis management: “It doesn’t matter what kind of crisis it is. The fact that the market is unfavorable for everyone, not just your company, doesn’t matter.
“The fact that other people also suffer from the same problems is of no importance. It is your responsibility to solve your problems, whether it is harder due to external reasons or not. Should this prevent you from building one? No. This is why I believe resilience has become an essential skill in today’s startup world.”
These are the main topics of the book:
- Firing and hiring
- Disrupting “broken” markets
- Raising Money
- Understanding your users
- Reaching product-market fit
- Making scale-up decisions
- Going global
- Crisis Management – Survival Mode
- Deciding when to sell
Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution offers mentorship in a book from one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs and empowers you to build a successful business by identifying your consumers’ biggest problems and disrupting the inefficient markets that currently serve them.
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Reviews (11)
11 reviews for Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs, Updated Edition
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Geoff –
I cofounded a B2B tech startup, I read Uri’s book while taking a short summer break to disconnect, and I found his book very enlightening. Uri provides a toolkit to win the startup journey. As a reader I did not feel like Uri wrote his book to celebrate his achievements, instead, the way he structured his book and his ability to explain important concepts in a pragmatic and concise way taking concrete examples of his past experience, really shows that he wrote this book to be helpful to the next generation of founders after him.
sujit –
Well written analysis of how to get things done in life and business.
Shubha K. Chakravarthy –
Written for the average reader, not written to impress other people.
Casimiro Juanes –
Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution is an incredibly insightful and thought-provoking read! This book challenges conventional thinking and offers a refreshing perspective on problem-solving. The author expertly emphasizes the importance of truly understanding and connecting with the problem at hand, rather than rushing into solutions. By focusing on the root cause, readers are encouraged to adopt a more thoughtful and innovative approach to both personal and professional challenges. It’s a must-read for anyone looking to develop deeper problem-solving skills and foster a mindset of curiosity and growth. Highly recommend!”
Julian R –
Interesting, engaging, practical and very actionable reading about what you can find in your entrepreneurship journey. Understand (and in fact falling in love with) the problem is crucial for success (and not doing that is the fastest ticket to failure).. Being part of boards of directors for startups I can validate that without the focus that Uvi is pushing for continuously, you do not get the intended results. Do focus on what matters in each time!
Rui Quintino –
I read books for/by/about founders all the time, and there’s always a useful bit or two I glean.
But every once in a while there comes a book that makes me sit up, eyes flying open, saying “Whoa, wait a sec!”
“Fall in love with the problem, not the solution”, by the founder of Waze, Uri Levine, dropped on my Kindle yesterday, and I’ve been riveted by every page.
It’s rare to see a book that blends rigorous thinking, disciplined action and a sense of objectivity about your own progress, successes and failures, along with a tested approach to building a viable startup.
Somehow Uri manages to do it all.
I am only about a third into the book and already have taken away multiple learnings, including some pretty non-obvious ones:
– You have to understand not just the problem but the emotional impact and imprint of the problem on the customer
– What makes a problem worth solving is not only that it is big but that it’s PERCEIVED to be big by a big enough segment of users
– Consequently, a problem may go from being big and worth solving to being big and NOT worth solving because something happened to change customers’ perception of the problem
– The reason a problem is big isn’t always about the size of the market – it could be a big enough market , but has to have high frequency and/or intensity of pain (of course, traffic headaches are the classic example of this)
– Nothing beats constant, consistent and direct contact with your users all the time. No amount of data or surveys can capture the why behind user behavior, only the what and the how. Just knowing the what and how will never be enough to tell you what to do next because you don’t know the why
By far my favorite piece so far is just Uri’s description of just how desolate your journey as a founder is prior to finding product-market fit.
As the quip said “It’s just one d— thing after another” – and when you start racking up failure after failure – it’s hard to stay focused and oriented.
And this book tells you exactly why and how you should keep going – and when to know it’s time to fold.
Founders – this is an excellent investment / reinforcement / learning and shot in the arm all in one.
Christian E. –
Valuable insights , easy to digest , written for start ups and scale ups
Old School. –
I know this book is great and legit because it advises (or in my case reminds) you not to make all the typical mistakes in business – of which I’ve done most. Even if you’re not starting an incredibly high growth startup, if you’re doing something that isn’t exactly a copy paste (arguably you shouldn’t be doing anyway) then read this book. It will guide you to build something people want, that matters, and that might make you rich!
George Mann –
Uri Levine’s “Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution” is a refreshing and insightful guide for anyone navigating the startup world. What sets this book apart is Levine’s core message: successful entrepreneurs are those who focus relentlessly on solving real-world problems rather than becoming too attached to a particular solution.
Drawing from his experience as co-founder of Waze, Levine shares invaluable lessons on the importance of perseverance, understanding customer pain points, retention, fail fast strategy and embracing failure as part of the journey.
This is not just a book about startups—it’s about mindset. Highly recommended for entrepreneurs and teams!!!
Robert D. –
It is written full of crystal clear examples and anecdotes that shall help to all the CEO’s of any startup. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in the world of the startups
Rui Quintino –
“The point is: You are trying to build something new that no one has built before, and even though you think you know exactly what you are doing, you do not. So you must try, again and again and again, until you find the one thing that does work.”
Uri Levine/Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs
I really loved this book and it’s very likely one of my top product/business books. The title alone says a lot and captures the main takeaway, but there’s so much more valuable and fresh information packed into every chapter. It never feels like a repetition of the same ideas.
It’s no surprise that Levine emphasizes the importance of visible value and customer obsession. He stresses focusing on the problem so you’re less restrained when iterating on different solutions, while always keeping the main outcome top of mind. The book also highlights how failure is important and necessary for product innovation success. So, dont count it will guide you to avoid failure, instead how to leverage it to improve your odds.
The book provides concrete stages suggested for different types of startups, with a bigger focus on B2C. It covers key stages like focusing on product market fit, then business model, and for each stage it suggests specific practices based on actual learnings from Levine’s own journey.
I loved the bulleted “startips” summaries at the end of each chapter. They provide a great way to refresh the key learnings and are perfect for my Kindle saved highlights and notes. The book also includes many interesting stories, including failures, dead ends, and lessons learned from Waze, Moovit and several of Levine’s startups.
Small note that the book seems to focus very heavily on the startup world (up until a possible exit), and naturally, from the founder/entrepreneur perspective. Frequently found myself asking what would generalize or be different outside that specific reality. Maybe there’s some space for a follow-up exploring a wider product scope/role. 🙂