Are you building a vitamin or a painkiller?

When I speak with founders about their product, most can clearly describe the problem they solve. What’s often missing is how they frame that solution — not just as something that adds value, but as something that genuinely removes pain. The way you frame your proposition determines whether investors see it as essential or optional – as a painkiller, or a vitamin.

And investors can tell the difference immediately.

Vitamins vs Painkillers

A vitamin is a nice-to-have. It makes life a bit better. You might buy it, you might not. If you forget to take it, nothing breaks. A painkiller is the opposite. It solves a problem so painful, you’ll pay for it now. Skip it, and the pain only gets worse.

It’s the same in business. Products that promise comfort or convenience are vitamins. Products that fix urgent, costly problems are painkillers. Investors know this – and they’re far more likely to back a painkiller.

Why Investors Favour Painkillers

Investment is about risk and reward. Painkillers offer both clarity and certainty. They address an immediate pain point, which means customer adoption is faster and willingness to pay is higher. Vitamins, by contrast, rely on persuasion and perfect timing.

A recent study into what sets unicorns apart found that 70% were positioned as painkillers. Only 30% were vitamins. It’s not hard to see why. A painkiller product doesn’t need to convince the market that a problem exists – the problem is already screaming for attention.

How to Tell Which One You’re Building

Ask yourself three questions:

1. What happens if my product disappears tomorrow? If your customers can carry on as usual, you’ve built a vitamin. If their operations grind to a halt, you’ve built a painkiller.
2. How urgent is the problem? Vitamins address long-term desires; painkillers address immediate needs. The shorter the time to pain, the stronger your proposition.
3. Who feels the pain most acutely? The deeper the pain, the easier the sale. Painkillers work best when you know exactly who is hurting and why.

Real-World Examples

Take Uber. Before it existed, getting a taxi was unpredictable. You could be stuck in the rain, waving for twenty minutes, unsure if a cab was on its way. Uber’s pitch wasn’t about the app or the GPS – it was about solving that pain: Tap a button, get a ride.

Or Slack. Endless email chains, constant interruptions, missed messages. Slack didn’t sell itself as a chat tool. It sold relief from chaos: Be less busy.

These are painkiller propositions. They address pain that’s constant, costly, and obvious.

Compare that to a vitamin product – something that’s nice to have, like a productivity tracker that helps you reflect at the end of the week. It might be helpful, but no one’s losing sleep without it. That means slow adoption, low urgency, and fragile revenue.

Why Founders Default to Vitamins

Many founders build what they want, not what their customers need. They fall in love with ideas, technology, and innovation. They chase trends – AI, blockchain, Web3 – without anchoring in a real customer pain. The result is a product that’s clever, but not critical.

There’s also comfort in vitamins. They’re easier to sell in conversation. Painkillers require confronting messy, real-world problems. But that’s where value lives. The deeper the pain, the greater the opportunity.

How to Turn a Vitamin into a Painkiller

If you suspect your product is a vitamin, all is not lost. You can reposition it. Go back to your customers and find the pain point your product touches. Make that your story. Focus your messaging, your roadmap, and your sales strategy around relieving that pain.

Instead of saying, “We make teams more efficient,” say, “We eliminate wasted hours that cost your business thousands every week.” Shift from a convenience narrative to a survival narrative.

Investors respond to that because it connects directly to market demand. It shows you understand what drives urgency – and revenue.

Pitch the Pain

Evidence from unicorns shows that painkillers attract faster adoption, stronger customer loyalty, and higher investor confidence. Vitamins can still succeed, but it takes more time, more education, and more luck. If you’re raising capital, make sure your proposition sits on the painkiller side of the line.

Investors don’t just want to see a product that works. They want to see a market that needs it. And if you can make your customers say, “I can’t live without this,” you won’t have to convince investors of your value – they’ll see it instantly.