Most aspiring entrepreneurs make the same mistake: they try to solve problems for people like themselves. If you’re starting out with limited resources, you naturally think about problems you face—budgeting apps, affordable meal planning, discount shopping tools. The logic seems sound: solve problems you understand deeply, for people you know well.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: if you want to build significant wealth, you need to solve problems for people who already have money.
Why Rich People Problems Pay Better
The math is straightforward. Someone struggling financially might pay $10/month for a solution that saves them $50. Someone wealthy will pay $10,000/month for a solution that saves them $50,000—or makes them $500,000.Wealthy individuals and successful companies have three critical characteristics that make them ideal customers:
First, they have disposable income specifically allocated for solving problems. A Fortune 500 company has budget lines for consulting, software, and services. A high-net-worth individual has discretionary spending power. They’re not choosing between your solution and rent—they’re choosing between your solution and a competitor’s.
Second, their problems are often more valuable to solve. Helping a startup founder save 10 hours a week is nice. Helping a CEO of a $100M company save 10 hours a week—or make better decisions with the time they have—can be worth tens of thousands monthly.
Third, they understand the value of paying for quality. Wealthy people and successful businesses have already learned that cheap solutions often cost more in the long run. They’re not looking for the cheapest option; they’re looking for the best option.
What Rich People Problems Look Like
These aren’t necessarily exotic or complex problems. They’re often mundane issues that happen to be expensive because of context:
A busy executive needs someone to manage their calendar efficiently. A growing company needs to streamline their hiring process. A high-net-worth family needs sophisticated tax planning. A successful law firm needs better client relationship management.
The problems themselves might seem ordinary, but the willingness to pay for solutions is extraordinary.Consider personal concierge services. The task might be as simple as making restaurant reservations or arranging travel. But to someone whose time is worth $500/hour, paying $100/hour for a concierge who saves them three hours a week is an obvious bargain.
The Psychological Barrier
Most people struggle with this advice because of psychological barriers. It feels wrong, somehow, to focus on helping people who are already doing well. Shouldn’t we solve problems for those who need it most?This thinking confuses personal ethics with business strategy. You can build a profitable business solving rich people problems and use that wealth to fund work you care about. Many successful entrepreneurs do exactly this—they build wealth through B2B software or high-end services, then fund charitable work or accessible products.
Moreover, solving problems for wealthy clients often creates spillover benefits. Enterprise software eventually becomes accessible to small businesses. Luxury innovations become mainstream products. The smartphone began as a tool for wealthy executives.
How to Identify Rich People Problems
Start by asking: where do wealthy people and successful businesses spend time and money? What frustrates them despite their resources?
Look for problems where the current solutions are surprisingly bad given how much money flows through the space. If wealthy people are tolerating something inconvenient or inefficient, there’s likely an opportunity.
Pay attention to industries with high hourly rates: law, consulting, finance, medicine, executive management. Any efficiency gain in these fields translates to significant value.
Notice what wealthy people complain about at dinner parties or what successful business owners mention in interviews. These casual complaints often represent real pain points they’d pay to solve.
The Access Challenge
The obvious objection: if you’re not wealthy yourself, how do you access these problems and these customers?This is real but not insurmountable. You can start by working in industries that serve wealthy clients—wealth management, luxury real estate, high-end hospitality, corporate consulting. You can build expertise in areas where wealthy people need help: tax law, estate planning, business operations.You can also solve adjacent problems first. Build something useful for small businesses, prove it works, then move upmarket to larger clients with bigger budgets. Many successful B2B companies follow this path.
A Final Word on Ethics
None of this means you should scam wealthy people or provide poor value. The principle is simple: provide real value to people who can afford to pay well for that value. It’s a fair exchange that benefits both parties.And remember, you get to choose what you do with the wealth you build. Solving rich people problems is a strategy for building resources, not a statement about whose problems matter most.
The path to wealth isn’t always about revolutionary innovation or changing the world. Sometimes it’s about solving the mundane problems of people who have the money to pay for good solutions. That’s not cynical—it’s just honest.
