Startups operate in a highly competitive landscape where some ideas disrupt industries, while others fade into obscurity. The critical difference often lies in the ability to understand and address customer needs effectively. This understanding is not just a nice-to-have; it’s the foundation upon which successful startups are built. Whether a product solves a pressing problem, enhances a user’s experience, or creates an emotional connection, its success hinges on how well it resonates with its target audience. Entrepreneurs who fail to grasp this often find themselves building solutions that no one truly needs, leading to missed opportunities and unmet potential.
Enter the Painkiller, Vitamin, Dopamine (PVD) Framework, a practical and insightful tool for evaluating startup ideas. This framework categorizes products and services into three types:
- Painkillers: Solutions that address critical, immediate problems.
- Vitamins: Enhancements that improve quality of life or efficiency.
- Dopamine: Offerings that emotionally engage and retain users.
By applying this lens, entrepreneurs can assess the true value and market potential of their ideas, ensuring they align with real-world needs and customer psychology. Investors, too, use this framework to identify startups with the highest likelihood of achieving market traction and scaling successfully.
Origin: The PVD Framework owes much of its popularity to Marc Andreessen, a renowned venture capitalist and entrepreneur. Andreessen highlighted the importance of understanding whether a startup is offering a “painkiller” or a “vitamin” as a fundamental part of evaluating its potential. Over time, the concept expanded to include “dopamine” as a third critical category, recognizing the psychological factors that drive engagement and loyalty in today’s digital-first world.
Purpose: Why does this framework matter? For entrepreneurs, it provides clarity on where their product stands and what adjustments might be needed to maximize impact. For investors, it serves as a reliable guide for evaluating whether a startup has the potential to solve meaningful problems, retain customers, and achieve profitability. In a world where innovation is abundant, the PVD Framework cuts through the noise, helping stakeholders focus on what truly matters: creating value, solving problems, and building lasting connections with customers. This blog will delve deep into the framework, illustrating how it can transform the way you approach startup ideation, evaluation, and execution.
Table of Contents
What is the PVD Framework?
The Painkiller, Vitamin, Dopamine (PVD) Framework is a mental model used to evaluate startup ideas and categorize products or services based on how they address customer needs and behaviors. This framework offers a structured way to understand the role a product plays in the lives of its users, enabling entrepreneurs and investors to gauge its market potential and scalability.
At its core, the PVD Framework breaks down into three categories:
- Painkillers: Products that solve urgent, critical problems, offering immediate and indispensable solutions.
- Vitamins: Products that enhance life by providing incremental improvements but are not essential.
- Dopamine: Products designed to engage users emotionally, creating addictive and habit-forming experiences.
By identifying where a product fits, the PVD Framework provides insights into its potential for adoption, retention, and monetization.
- Painkillers
- What they are: Must-have solutions that address acute pain points or challenges faced by the customer.
- Psychological Connection: Align with a survival mindset; customers are highly motivated to solve problems that disrupt their lives or businesses.
- Market Demand: High, as users are actively searching for solutions to their problems.
- Vitamins
- What they are: Nice-to-have products that improve user experiences or provide additional value.
- Psychological Connection: Appeal to the desire for self-improvement or enhanced convenience but lack urgency.
- Market Demand: Moderate, as adoption depends on awareness and perceived value.
- Dopamine
- What they are: Habit-forming solutions that tap into emotional and psychological triggers to engage and retain users.
- Psychological Connection: Leverage the brain’s reward system to create satisfaction, excitement, and loyalty.
- Market Demand: High potential for viral growth due to user engagement and retention mechanisms.
The PVD Framework is deeply rooted in human psychology:
- Painkillers: Address basic psychological needs, such as safety and security, by resolving immediate discomfort or risks.
- Vitamins: Cater to higher-order needs, such as self-improvement and convenience, providing incremental value that enhances quality of life.
- Dopamine: Exploit the brain’s reward pathways, driving engagement through pleasure, progress, and emotional satisfaction.
From a market perspective:
- Painkillers often have clear demand and faster adoption rates due to the urgency of the problems they solve.
- Vitamins require more effort to market, as their benefits are subtle and realized over time.
- Dopamine-driven products thrive in industries where user engagement and loyalty are critical, such as gaming, social media, and entertainment.

Why use this framework?
- Solving Problems, Enhancing Lives, Driving Engagement
- The framework helps identify whether a product solves an essential problem, adds value to customers’ lives, or creates lasting emotional connections.
- Startups can focus their resources on building solutions that resonate with their target audience.
- Role in Product Development
- Founders can refine their offerings to better align with customer needs and market gaps.
- Painkillers ensure essential functionality, vitamins enhance user experience, and dopamine fosters engagement.
- Role in Marketing
- Painkillers can be marketed with urgency and necessity.
- Vitamins require storytelling to demonstrate value over time.
- Dopamine-based products leverage user-generated content and virality for growth.
- Role in Investment Decisions
- Investors can evaluate startups based on their category, assessing potential adoption rates, monetization strategies, and long-term scalability.
- Painkillers often attract the highest investment due to their immediate market demand, while dopamine-based products hold the promise of exponential growth through engagement.
Painkillers: Solving Critical Problems
Painkillers are products or services that address immediate and significant problems, providing clear, measurable solutions. Customers actively seek out these solutions because they are essential, not optional.
- Key characteristics include:
- Urgency: The problem being solved is pressing and demands immediate attention.
- Measurable Value: The product offers tangible outcomes that can be quantified, such as time savings or cost reductions.
- High Adoption Potential: Customers are motivated to implement the solution quickly due to its necessity.
- Market Validation: The problem is widely recognized and significant enough to create demand.
- Examples
- Stripe (Fintech)
- Problem: Online businesses faced complex payment integration.
- Solution: Stripe provided a simplified API that made payment integration seamless and fast.
- Impact: Enabled millions of businesses to monetize online easily, transforming e-commerce infrastructure.
- Zoom (Communication Technology)
- Problem: Existing video conferencing tools were unreliable and hard to use.
- Solution: Zoom offered a user-friendly platform with superior reliability.
- Impact: Became indispensable during the pandemic, facilitating remote work and education globally.
- Databricks (Enterprise Data Management)
- Problem: Enterprises struggled with complex big data processing and analytics.
- Solution: Databricks unified data analytics, simplifying machine learning and AI implementation.
- Impact: Transformed how companies process and leverage data for decision-making.
- Stripe (Fintech)
- Investor Perspective: Painkillers are highly attractive to investors due to their clear market demand and scalability. Their ability to address immediate problems ensures faster adoption and predictable revenue streams, making them safer bets for early-stage investment.
Vitamins: Enhancing Lives
Vitamins are products or services that enhance user experiences or provide incremental improvements. Unlike painkillers, they address desires rather than needs, offering value that is beneficial but not critical.
- Key characteristics include:
- Optional Adoption: Customers can live without these products, but their lives are improved by using them.
- Lower Urgency: Adoption is less immediate, as the value is often perceived over time.
- Higher Marketing Effort: Requires storytelling and demonstration to persuade users of its benefits.
- Incremental Value: Provides marginal but noticeable enhancements to quality of life or productivity.
- Examples
- Notion (Productivity Software)
- Problem: Productivity tools were fragmented across various platforms.
- Solution: Notion combined notes, tasks, and collaboration into an all-in-one workspace.
- Impact: Improved team collaboration and individual workflow efficiency.
- Calm (Meditation App)
- Problem: Stress and mental wellness are ongoing challenges.
- Solution: Calm offered guided meditation, sleep aids, and mindfulness resources.
- Impact: Helped millions of users manage stress and improve mental well-being.
- Slack (Team Communication)
- Problem: Email-based communication was inefficient for modern teams.
- Solution: Slack streamlined communication with a real-time messaging platform and integrations.
- Impact: Enhanced workplace communication, especially in remote work setups.
- Notion (Productivity Software)
- Investor Perspective: Vitamin products face challenges in adoption and monetization, making them less attractive to investors unless they are highly differentiated. Successful vitamin startups often combine their offering with painkiller or dopamine elements to improve their appeal.
Dopamine: Driving Emotional Engagement
Dopamine products create emotional connections with users by leveraging psychological triggers. They are designed to engage users, foster habit formation, and build loyalty through rewarding experiences.
- Key characteristics include:
- Emotional Triggers: Appeal to users’ emotions through gratification and rewards.
- Habit Formation: Encourage repeat usage by tapping into addictive behaviors.
- Viral Growth Potential: Users share and promote the product due to its engaging nature.
- User Retention: Builds strong, long-lasting relationships with customers.
- Examples
- TikTok (Social Media)
- Psychological Mechanism: Personalized content algorithms and infinite scrolling.
- Engagement Triggers: Quick, novel content that delivers instant gratification.
- Impact: Became a global phenomenon, driving user engagement and virality.
- Duolingo (Language Learning)
- Psychological Mechanism: Gamified learning with streaks, leaderboards, and rewards.
- Engagement Triggers: Progress tracking and achievement systems.
- Impact: Made language learning fun and addictive, retaining millions of users.
- Robinhood (Investment Platform)
- Psychological Mechanism: Simplified, gamified stock trading.
- Engagement Triggers: Real-time updates, instant transactions, and visual rewards.
- Impact: Attracted first-time investors, democratizing access to financial markets.
- TikTok (Social Media)
- Investor Perspective: Dopamine-driven startups are high-risk, high-reward opportunities. Their potential for exponential growth through virality and user retention makes them attractive, but their success depends heavily on exceptional execution and understanding of user psychology.
The Hybrid Approach
The most successful startups often don’t fit neatly into a single category within the Painkiller, Vitamin, Dopamine (PVD) Framework. Instead, they blend elements of all three categories, creating products that solve critical problems, enhance user experiences, and foster emotional connections. This hybrid approach allows startups to maximize their impact, appeal to diverse customer needs, and build lasting loyalty.
By combining painkillers, vitamins, and dopamine, startups achieve:
- Increased Adoption: Solving immediate problems ensures fast traction.
- Long-Term Value: Enhancements and innovations sustain user satisfaction.
- High Engagement: Emotional triggers and habit-forming mechanisms drive loyalty and word-of-mouth growth.
Case Studies
Airbnb: Painkiller + Dopamine
- Painkiller Element:
Airbnb solved a major pain point in the travel industry: affordable and flexible accommodation.- Problem: Travelers struggled with expensive hotels and limited options.
- Solution: Airbnb provided an easy-to-use platform for booking affordable and unique stays, including private homes and unconventional spaces.
- Result: It addressed a critical gap in the market, especially for budget-conscious travelers.
- Dopamine Element:
Airbnb tapped into emotional triggers by creating engaging travel experiences.- Mechanism: The platform allows users to explore personalized and adventurous stays, creating excitement and a sense of discovery.
- User Experience: Features like user reviews, curated recommendations, and host interactions foster trust and community.
- Impact: Travelers not only find a place to stay but also connect with local cultures and experiences, making travel more meaningful and memorable.
Takeaway: Airbnb succeeded by solving an urgent problem (accommodation) while adding emotional value through unique, engaging travel experiences.
Tesla: Painkiller + Vitamin
- Painkiller Element:
Tesla addressed the global need for sustainable transportation.- Problem: The world faced an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions and reliance on fossil fuels.
- Solution: Tesla’s electric vehicles (EVs) provided a sustainable alternative to traditional cars, offering zero emissions and advanced technology.
- Result: Tesla became a market leader in EVs, pushing the boundaries of green technology and innovation.
- Vitamin Element:
Tesla enhanced the driving experience with premium, futuristic designs and cutting-edge features.- Innovation: Its vehicles feature advanced autopilot, high-performance batteries, and luxurious interiors.
- Perception: Tesla is not just an eco-friendly option but also a status symbol for innovation and luxury.
- Impact: It created an aspirational product that appeals to environmentally conscious consumers and tech enthusiasts alike.
Takeaway: Tesla blends the necessity of sustainability with the desirability of innovation and luxury, creating a product that solves a critical problem while offering premium value.
Why the Hybrid Approach Works
The hybrid approach allows startups to leverage the strengths of each category, ensuring not just survival but market leadership. By strategically blending painkillers, vitamins, and dopamine, startups can achieve enduring success in a competitive landscape.
- Broader Appeal: Addressing multiple customer needs ensures that startups can cater to diverse markets.
- Sustained Growth: Painkillers drive initial adoption, while vitamins and dopamine foster long-term loyalty and engagement.
- Market Differentiation: Combining these elements creates a unique value proposition, making products harder to replicate.


Comparative Analysis
A detailed comparison of the Painkiller, Vitamin, and Dopamine categories within the PVD Framework helps illustrate how these approaches differ in terms of market adoption, investment attractiveness, and overall success probability.
Category | Market Adoption | Investment Attractiveness | Success Probability |
---|---|---|---|
Painkillers | Fastest Adoption: Addresses critical, urgent problems; immediate and measurable benefits. Example: Stripe. | Most Attractive: Clear market demand, predictable growth. Example: Zoom. | Highest: Essential value ensures demand and adoption. Example: Databricks. |
Vitamins | Slower Adoption: Offers incremental value, requires persuasion. Example: Notion. | Moderate Attractiveness: Needs differentiation and potential for premium pricing. Example: Calm. | Execution-Dependent: Success hinges on differentiation and strategy. Example: Notion. |
Dopamine | Gradual Adoption: Relies on emotional triggers and viral growth. Example: TikTok. | High-Reward but Risky: Massive growth potential, requires exceptional execution. Example: Robinhood. | Execution Critical: Relies on user engagement and retention. Example: TikTok. |
Market Adoption
- Painkillers: Fastest Adoption
- Why: Painkillers address critical, urgent problems that customers are actively seeking solutions for.
- Outcome: Customers quickly adopt these products because the benefits are immediate and measurable.
- Example: Tools like Stripe (for payment processing) are adopted rapidly as they remove a major hurdle for businesses.
- Vitamins: Slower Adoption
- Why: Vitamins offer incremental value, making adoption optional rather than necessary. Customers require persuasion to see the product’s value.
- Outcome: Adoption depends on marketing, storytelling, and long-term perceived benefits.
- Example: Notion’s all-in-one productivity platform saw slower growth initially but gained traction as its value became evident.
- Dopamine: Gradual, Engagement-Driven Adoption
- Why: Dopamine products rely on emotional triggers and viral growth rather than addressing immediate needs.
- Outcome: Adoption starts slowly but can grow exponentially as users share experiences and engage more deeply.
- Example: TikTok took time to gain traction but achieved massive adoption through user engagement and viral appeal.
Investment Attractiveness
- Painkillers: Most Attractive
- Why: These solutions have clear market demand and a direct path to monetization, making them a safer bet for investors.
- Outcome: Startups with painkiller products are highly scalable and offer predictable growth.
- Example: Zoom’s painkiller approach during the pandemic attracted significant investment due to its critical role in remote work.
- Vitamins: Moderate Attractiveness with Differentiation
- Why: Vitamins need to demonstrate unique value or market differentiation to attract investors, as they face slower adoption and optional usage.
- Outcome: Investors are cautious but interested if the product has potential for viral growth or premium pricing.
- Example: Calm attracted investment by combining a high-quality user experience with a growing demand for wellness products.
- Dopamine: High-Reward but Risky
- Why: Dopamine-driven startups have massive growth potential but require exceptional execution to succeed. Investors need confidence in the product’s ability to create engagement and retention.
- Outcome: These startups are high-risk, high-reward opportunities.
- Example: Robinhood gained investor interest by gamifying stock trading, but its growth was contingent on creating an addictive user experience.
Success Probability
- Painkillers: Highest Probability of Success
- Why: The necessity of the product ensures demand, providing a strong foundation for success.
- Outcome: These startups often succeed due to their essential value.
- Example: Databricks unified data analytics, solving a major problem for enterprises, leading to wide adoption and success.
- Vitamins: Execution-Dependent
- Why: Vitamins depend heavily on execution, market education, and differentiation to succeed.
- Outcome: Success is less predictable but achievable with the right strategy.
- Example: Notion’s success came after consistent refinement and effective marketing.
- Dopamine: Execution and Market Appeal Are Critical
- Why: These startups rely on creating an addictive experience that resonates with users on a psychological level.
- Outcome: Success depends on mastering user engagement and retaining a loyal customer base.
- Example: TikTok’s mastery of emotional triggers and content algorithms propelled it to global success.
Strategic Recommendations
Recommendations for Entrepreneurs | Why | How/What | Example |
Focus on Solving Critical Problems First (Painkillers) | Addresses immediate needs, ensuring faster adoption and monetization. | Identify critical pain points and create measurable solutions. | A cybersecurity platform protecting businesses from data breaches. |
Add Vitamins to Improve Long-Term Value | Enhances user experience, increasing satisfaction and loyalty over time. | Introduce additional features that cater to convenience, efficiency, or improvement. | Stripe integrating analytics tools to enhance utility. |
Incorporate Dopamine Elements to Boost Engagement and Retention | Creates emotional connections, encouraging repeat usage and loyalty. | Use gamification, tracking, and rewards to make products habit-forming. | A fitness app introducing challenges, leaderboards, and badges. |
For Entrepreneurs
To succeed in the competitive startup ecosystem, entrepreneurs must strategically position their products by leveraging the Painkiller, Vitamin, Dopamine (PVD) framework.
- Focus on Solving Critical Problems First (Painkillers)
- Why: Painkillers address immediate and essential needs, ensuring faster adoption and a clear path to monetization.
- How: Identify critical pain points in your target market and create solutions that provide measurable value.
- Example: Launching a cybersecurity platform that protects businesses from data breaches positions your product as a necessity.
- Add Vitamins to Improve Long-Term Value
- Why: Vitamins enhance the user experience, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty over time.
- How: Once the core problem is solved, introduce additional features or improvements that cater to convenience, efficiency, or self-improvement.
- Example: A payment platform like Stripe can integrate analytics tools as a vitamin, enhancing its utility.
- Incorporate Dopamine Elements to Boost Engagement and Retention
- Why: Dopamine-driven features create emotional connections, encouraging repeat usage and fostering loyalty.
- How: Use gamification, progress tracking, and rewards to engage users and make your product habit-forming.
- Example: A fitness app could introduce challenges, leaderboards, and badges to encourage consistent use.
Recommendation for Investors | Why | How / What | Example |
Prioritize Startups Addressing Widespread Problems | Startups solving critical, large-scale problems achieve rapid traction. | Clear market demand, measurable outcomes, and scalability. | A healthcare platform simplifying patient record management. |
Look for Hybrid Solutions Combining Multiple Categories | Blends painkillers, vitamins, and dopamine for broader appeal and sustained growth. | Solutions solving immediate problems while adding value and fostering engagement. | Airbnb combining affordable accommodation (painkiller) and unique experiences (dopamine). |
Evaluate the Scalability and Long-Term Relevance of Products | Scalable products with enduring market relevance offer higher returns and lower risk. | Market size, potential for expansion, and adaptability to customer needs. | Tesla addressing sustainability (painkiller) with premium innovation (vitamin) and branding (dopamine). |
For Investors
Investors can leverage the PVD framework to evaluate startup opportunities and identify high-potential ventures.
- Prioritize Startups Addressing Widespread Problems
- Why: Startups solving critical, large-scale problems (painkillers) are more likely to achieve rapid market traction and profitability.
- What to look for: Clear market demand, measurable outcomes, and a scalable solution.
- Example: Backing a healthcare platform that simplifies patient record management, as it addresses a pressing and universal need.
- Look for Hybrid Solutions combining multiple categories
- Why: Startups that blend painkillers, vitamins, and dopamine elements appeal to a broader audience and sustain growth.
- What to look for: Solutions that solve immediate problems while fostering engagement and adding value over time.
- Example: Investing in Airbnb, which combines painkiller (affordable accommodation) and dopamine (unique travel experiences) elements.
- Evaluate the scalability and long-term relevance of products
- Why: Scalable products with enduring market relevance offer higher returns and lower risk.
- What to Look for: Market size, potential for expansion, and adaptability to changing customer needs.
- Example: Supporting Tesla, which addresses sustainability (painkiller) while offering premium innovation (vitamin) and aspirational branding (dopamine).
Actionable Insights
For Entrepreneurs:
- Begin with a laser focus on solving essential problems to establish market presence.
- Gradually integrate enhancements and engagement features to extend value and retention.
For Investors:
- Seek out startups that are solving critical, large-scale problems while demonstrating innovation and emotional engagement.
- Favor businesses that show the ability to scale and adapt to future market demands.
How Entrepreneurs can use the Framework?
The Painkiller, Vitamin, Dopamine (PVD) framework provides entrepreneurs with actionable insights to shape and refine their startup ideas effectively. Here’s how they can apply it:
- Validate ideas by identifying the category they fall into
- Why: Understanding whether your idea is a painkiller, vitamin, or dopamine-driven product helps prioritize development efforts and resource allocation.
- How:
- Evaluate the urgency of the problem your product addresses.
- Determine if the solution provides incremental improvement or emotional engagement.
- Map your idea against customer needs and pain points.
- Example: A telemedicine app can be classified as a painkiller because it solves critical issues of access to healthcare.
- Refine Product Positioning and Messaging
- Why: Clear positioning ensures that customers understand the value your product brings, whether it’s essential (painkiller), beneficial (vitamin), or engaging (dopamine).
- How:
- Highlight urgency and necessity for painkillers.
- Emphasize long-term benefits and lifestyle enhancements for vitamins.
- Showcase habit-forming, emotionally rewarding features for dopamine-based products.
- Example: For a vitamin-like productivity app, positioning the product as an “all-in-one workspace for efficiency” appeals to professionals seeking enhanced organization.
How Investors can use this Framework?
For investors, the PVD framework serves as a powerful evaluation tool to assess the viability, scalability, and potential impact of a startup.
- Assess startups based on Problem-Solving capability
- Why: Painkiller startups are often the most reliable investments, offering clear market demand and a direct path to monetization.
- How:
- Evaluate the urgency and scale of the problem being solved.
- Determine whether the solution is essential to the target audience.
- Example: A startup providing cybersecurity solutions for small businesses solves a critical problem and is likely to achieve rapid adoption.
- Evaluate emotional engagement potential
- Why: Dopamine-driven startups, while high-risk, can achieve massive growth if they master user engagement and retention.
- How:
- Assess the startup’s understanding of user psychology and engagement mechanisms.
- Look for features that encourage habitual use, such as gamification or community-building elements.
- Example: A language-learning app like Duolingo uses dopamine elements (streaks, rewards) to retain users, increasing lifetime value.
Conclusion
The Painkiller, Vitamin, Dopamine (PVD) Framework offers entrepreneurs and investors a structured approach to understanding startup potential. By categorizing products as Painkillers, Vitamins, or Dopamine-driven, the framework helps identify how a startup solves critical problems, enhances lives, or drives emotional engagement. Painkillers address urgent needs, ensuring fast adoption; vitamins provide incremental value, fostering long-term satisfaction; and dopamine-driven products create loyalty and virality through emotional triggers. Together, these categories provide a comprehensive lens for evaluating market fit, scalability, and user retention.
Startup success is rooted in a deep understanding of customer needs. It’s not enough to have a groundbreaking idea; what matters is solving real problems, delivering value, and forming meaningful connections with your target audience. Whether your product alleviates pain, enhances experiences, or engages users emotionally, aligning with these principles ensures relevance, adoption, and loyalty in a competitive market.
The PVD Framework is more than a theoretical tool—it’s a practical guide for navigating the complexities of the startup world. By incorporating its principles, entrepreneurs and investors alike can build and support ventures that create real value and stand the test of time.
Reference Articles
- “Painkillers, Vitamins, and Dopamine: The Test Every Startup Must Take” – Manoj Mohan
- This article explores the Painkiller, Vitamin, Dopamine (PVD) framework, explaining how startups can categorize their products and align them with customer needs for better market success. I really liked the article and thought of writing this article inspired from this one. – Link to article
- “Is Your Startup Building a Vitamin or a Painkiller?” – Forbes
- A detailed analysis of the differences between painkillers and vitamins, with actionable insights on how each impacts market adoption and scalability. – Link to article
- “Painkillers, Vitamins, or Dopamine: Which One is Your Startup and What Strategy Should You Choose?” – HackerNoon
- This article provides a comprehensive guide to identifying whether your startup operates as a painkiller, vitamin, or dopamine-based product and offers strategic advice tailored to each category. –Link to article
- “The Psychology of User Engagement: Understanding Dopamine Triggers” – Harvard Business Review
- A deep dive into how startups use dopamine-driven elements to create habit-forming products, focusing on the psychological factors behind user retention.