The Pain Cave = months or years of grinding on something no one is pulling for. Symptoms:

• Endless pivots and “validations” with no revenue.
• Overthinking roadmaps, scaling plans, and brand before demand exists.
• Feeling like “something is missing” while doing 100 unrelated tactics.

Why it happens:

1. Building what you want instead of what they want to buy.
2. Trying to “solve” every startup variable at once.
3. Working hard on the wrong things because they sound right.

How to avoid it:

• Sell before you build (“sell then build”) to confirm demand.
• Focus only on the current bottleneck in your GTM system.
• Use small, fast, messy actions to learn what works.