The last product to get cancelled
4 comments
·December 17, 2025simonw
nanomonkey
This seems like a terrible analogy, as a vitamin is something you can't live without, while pain killers mask the problem. I'd think one would want to be a vitamin and not a pain killer, but the opposite suggestion is being made. Maybe that's why this hasn't stood the test of time.
pocketarc
> a vitamin is something you can't live without
They are talking about vitamin supplements, not literal vitamins that you need in order to live. Vitamin supplements do not survive in a budget reduction spreadsheet - they're easy to let go of for a while. On the other hand, if you're in pain, you need painkillers, and you're not going to be thinking about your budget, you're just going to go get some to get rid of the pain, even if it's just a temporary fix (and even better for the business if it's just a temporary fix - recurring revenue!).
That's the whole thing, the whole "solve a real problem" thing they keep talking about for startups.
tonioab
Reposting because the previous version had a font rendering issue in light mode
I had to look up the painkiller v.s. vitamin distinction - I hadn't heard that one before. Evidently it's common startup folklore these days but I think it was first popularized by Don Dodge in 2006, here's the post via the Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20060329104930/https://dondodge....