&gt;by that token uber&#x27;s founders should have gone and worked as taxi drivers so they would understand that world, and airbnb&#x27;s founders should have opened a hotel.<p>Yeah.  That&#x27;s actually a really appealing idea.  At one point, I wanted to write software to help individuals and small bookstores sell online.   So what did I do?  I bought a bunch of books and sold them online!   I&#x27;m not saying that&#x27;s why I failed... but I failed to come up with a product worth using before the market became crowded with much better products.