The eureka myth is one of the most celebrated entrepreneur themes. In its modern form it includes two founders, a Starbucks shop and a napkin while in the older versions, a man and an apple tree with slight variations.

The genius’ single moment of brilliance in which he recognizes both the problem and the solution and then locks himself alone until he solves it, has its roots in our psychology and the way we shape history to fit our psychology rather than any true factual holding. it’s the modern-era greek mythology.

If founders took the time to document their steps on the journey, it would look much more messy, it would include more people than just the one or two left in the final version and the amount of times they changed the problem they were aiming to solve would surpass anyone’s expectations.

One source of perspective i personally always found entertaining is Bessemer’s anti-portfolio which illustrates how a start often looks like . Even though this is from an investor perspective, most successful entrepreneur like to forget those early days.

Reading success stories such as the ones in the business section of your local book store on your favorite entrepreneurial magazine ( my favorite one is Inc.) might get you inspired but will provide a wrong perspective as to what it takes to start and what it will take to make it happen.

So what does it take to start? two main ingredients – a team and a problem that needs to be solved.

out of the two, team always wins as it allows you to navigate through a changing world so that even if you started with a problem that is no longer relevant or that never was, you realize your situation, set course and execute.

The problem you are trying to solve (and it’s more important to know what you are trying to solve than how you are solving it..) is important as a starting point and ideally should always be big enough so that there is high value and a lot of room for competitors but still breakable to smaller components that are deliverable by a small company in a time frame that will allow you to get on top of the game before it is too crowded.

in the next two posts i will discuss the team structure and the problem definition challenges.