Excuse me, is there a problem?

The article argues that many startups fail even after identifying a real problem and building a product that solves it, because solving a problem is not enough to build a successful company. It presents a model with checkpoints, including whether enough people have the problem, whether they know they have it and care, and whether they have budget to solve it. For the first checkpoint, it estimates that a sustainable small company needs about 1,000 paying customers, which by its Fermi estimate requires roughly 10 million impressions at a 1% click-through rate and 1% conversion to paying. It also says businesses need only about 100,000 potential customers because they pay more and convert at higher rates.