Gabe Newell believed people would pay for games they could get free if paying gave them a better experience. 🎮💵 The Valve co-founder saw piracy as a service problem. If an unofficial copy was easier to get and use than a legitimate one, the company was giving customers a reason to look elsewhere. A paying customer shouldn’t have to wait longer, navigate more restrictions, or fight harder to make a game work. Valve’s answer was to improve the experience through Steam: make games easy to buy, download, update, and keep in one place. Give customers convenience worth paying for. That changes the business problem. Instead of focusing only on stopping people from getting something free, focus on making the paid version the one they prefer. People value their time. They value reliability. They’ll pay to avoid frustration when the service delivers on that promise. The lesson extends beyond gaming. A good product can lose customers to a better experience. How people find it, buy it, and...