# Startup Secrets: How to Build a Winning Value Proposition with Michael Skok

> In this Harvard Innovation Labs 'Startup Secrets' workshop, veteran venture capitalist and Underscore VC founding partner Michael Skok walks a room of founders through how to define, evaluate, and build a compelling value proposition. Arguing that the number-one reason companies fail is not solving a valuable enough problem, Skok lays out a practical toolkit: nailing the 'for who,' finding a minimum viable segment, testing pain with the 'Four Us' (Unworkable, Unavoidable, Urgent, Underserved), distinguishing latent/aspirational needs from blatant/critical ones, replacing 'faster, better, cheaper' with the '3Ds' (Disruptive, Discontinuous, Defensible), and measuring the 'gain/pain ratio.' Real founders from Kazakhstan, Kenya, South Africa, and beyond pressure-test their ideas live as Skok returns again and again to one refrain: stop pitching, and go ask your users.

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Last updated: 2026-07-15