Building a Startup is About Solving a Problem - Avni Patel Thompson of Poppy

TL;DR

Avni Patel Thompson recounts her journey from a failed first startup (a cultural subscription box) to building Poppy, a childcare platform that connects vetted caregivers to families. She learned to focus on solving a real problem (the loss of the “village” for childcare) rather than building a product, and used low‑cost, off‑the‑shelf tools (Squarespace, Typeform, Stripe, Google Calendar, SMS, Ex

Key insights

• Passion can breed overconfidence; curiosity and frustration keep a founder humble and motivated.
• Talking to “experts” (advisors, investors) is less valuable than talking to actual users when trying to build something new.
• Building a startup is about solving a problem, not delivering a polished product; the product can be ugly and imperfect as long as it addresses the core need.