ANCHALA TOMAR
Make Something People Need
Why I Stopped Building What People Want and Started Building What They Need
YC says, "Make something people want".
It’s good advice. It gets you moving fast. Forces you to listen. Helps you avoid building in a vacuum. But after spending the last year building Multiply, I’ve started thinking differently.
"Wants" are loud. They show up in feedback forms, feature requests, DMs, tweets. They’re usually short-term, surface-level, and reactive. But the deeper, more enduring stuff? The stuff people don't say? That’s need.
Needs don’t scream. They show up in behaviour. Like someone jumping between six platforms just to get updates on one event.
When I started Multiply, I thought I was building a better RSVP tool. But the more I watched users, the more I realised: They didn’t just need invites. They needed structure. They needed connection. They needed monetisation.
They were chasing hype – but didn’t know how to hold onto it. Multiply became the structure behind that hype. It isn't what people asked for. It is what they need.
Wants are visible. Needs are felt. And great products often start as unspoken needs. People didn’t ask for the iPhone, AirPods or Google Maps – but they needed them. And once they had them, they never looked back.
Again, "Make something people want" is not wrong. It’s just not always complete.
If you can spot what people need, even before they can say it out loud – And if you have the guts to build that – You’re not just building a product. You’re building a movement.
That’s what we are doing at Multiply.