🧐 Right Problems

👋 Hi there - it’s Egemen. Thanks for reading Scalable.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in startups is this: working hard doesn’t mean you’re working smart.

Early on, you spend months chasing problems that feel important—bugs, UI tweaks, small feature requests. But when you zoom out, you’ll realize none of it moves the needle.

I’ve observed this issue quite a bit with numerous founders I’ve worked with. That’s when I realized the difference between solving problems and solving the right problems.

Here’s a snapshot of what’s on the menu today:

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🧠 Deep-Dive: How to Focus on the Right Problems

Here’s the pattern I’ve noticed: when founders fail to prioritize, they often treat symptoms instead of root causes.

Take churn, for example. Many founders rush to run discounts or add “sticky” features. But the real issue might be onboarding, unclear value, or a product that doesn’t fully deliver on its promise.

The teams that get it right spend time digging deeper—asking “why” multiple times until they land on the true bottleneck.

Came across this YC video featuring Dalton & Michael that covers exactly this pitfall:

I’ve also learned that user conversations are the best shortcut to clarity.

The founders who regularly talk to their customers are the ones solving the right issues. Users won’t tell you exactly what to build, but they will tell you what’s frustrating or holding them back.

The trick is listening carefully and connecting the dots.

Focus is all about trade-offs. If you’re solving one problem, it means you’re not solving another.

Founders who succeed revisit priorities often and make sure the team is still working on the most impactful challenges.

It’s not easy, but it’s essential.

👉 Startups grow when they focus. Everything else is noise.

🎙️ Working on a startup? Grab some time with me.
Tell me what’s going well - or not so well. I’m here to help.

🗺️ Method: Problem Prioritization Matrix

When it comes to focusing on the right problems, I use a simple prioritization framework that’s kept my team on track.

Here’s what it looks like:

It’s straightforward:
- Focus first on Quick Wins (high impact, low effort), then
- plan for Strategic Investments (high impact, high effort),
- ignore Time Sinks (low impact, high effort), and
- tackle Small Optimizations only if you have extra bandwidth.

By visualizing problems like this, it’s much easier to align resources and make decisions.

The hard part? Staying laser-focused.

It's easy to get tempted by time sinks—but that’s where focus makes all the difference.

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☝️ Scaled This Past Week: Grand Games

Grand Games, the publisher behind Magic Sort and Car Match, has picked up $30 million in funding - it’s the scale of the week!

London-based Balderton is leading this Series A, which also had participation from previous backers Bek Ventures (formerly Earlybird Digital East) and Laton Ventures (which led a $3 million seed round last year), as well as angel investor Mert Gür.

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