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Apologies in advance for the nitpick, but if you're just dropping your product and doing something else that's not really a pivot. Pivoting is more like changin

Apologies in advance for the nitpick, but if you're just dropping your product and doing something else that's not really a pivot. Pivoting is more like changing your plan than throwing it out - targeting a different audience, changing your product plan based on feedback, that sort of thing.

randallsquared 6y ago
Their product is the company they're building, not any of the software or services, so "pivot" seems applicable after all. :)
- beaconstudios 6y ago
  I think if you change both the product and the market then it's just giving up and doing something else!
mbreese 6y ago
I’d call changing the entire plan a “hard pivot.” I mean Slack started out as a video game (and Flickr - same game IIRC). But as the counter point, here’s an article that argues against doing that in favor of simply shutting down (including comments from a YC partner no less)! https://www.reforge.com/brief/why-hard-pivots-in-startups-are-deadly https://www.reforge.com/brief/why-hard-pivots-in-startups-ar... In this case though, the company is brand new. There aren’t a lot of employees involved. The valuations are low and most of the costs are sunk. There isn’t much to lose by trying something different. And they went from a video conferencing platform to managing scheduling for video conferences. It’s at least in the same ballpark. I guess what I’d say is that it is completely fair to criticize the team for the product they made. It isn’t something I’d spend money on and is in a crowded market with existing players (both free and paid). Not the best plan. But don’t criticize them for switching tracks. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But at this stage, I don’t see much downside in them trying.
- beaconstudios 6y ago
  I think it's always fair to criticise somebody's work - after all, starting a company is stepping into the public sphere. I don't know if what they're doing will be successful or not because I presume they've investigated the market more than I have. The proof is in the pudding though - we'll see in a few years if the idea was good or not!
dang 6y ago
> dropping your product and doing something else The word 'pivot' in the startup context is used to mean precisely that.
- beaconstudios 6y ago
  Must be semantic drift then because my understanding of the definition in Lean Startup was that it was a moderate course correction based on what you learned, not throwing the whole thing out. Semantic drift happens though, and pivot certainly sounds nicer than "we gave up to do something else", so it's liable to become a broader term out of sheer convenience.

randallsquared 6y ago

Their product is the company they're building, not any of the software or services, so "pivot" seems applicable after all. :)

beaconstudios 6y ago
I think if you change both the product and the market then it's just giving up and doing something else!

mbreese 6y ago

I’d call changing the entire plan a “hard pivot.” I mean Slack started out as a video game (and Flickr - same game IIRC). But as the counter point, here’s an article that argues against doing that in favor of simply shutting down (including comments from a YC partner no less)! https://www.reforge.com/brief/why-hard-pivots-in-startups-are-deadly https://www.reforge.com/brief/why-hard-pivots-in-startups-ar... In this case though, the company is brand new. There aren’t a lot of employees involved. The valuations are low and most of the costs are sunk. There isn’t much to lose by trying something different. And they went from a video conferencing platform to managing scheduling for video conferences. It’s at least in the same ballpark. I guess what I’d say is that it is completely fair to criticize the team for the product they made. It isn’t something I’d spend money on and is in a crowded market with existing players (both free and paid). Not the best plan. But don’t criticize them for switching tracks. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But at this stage, I don’t see much downside in them trying.

beaconstudios 6y ago
I think it's always fair to criticise somebody's work - after all, starting a company is stepping into the public sphere. I don't know if what they're doing will be successful or not because I presume they've investigated the market more than I have. The proof is in the pudding though - we'll see in a few years if the idea was good or not!

dang 6y ago

> dropping your product and doing something else The word 'pivot' in the startup context is used to mean precisely that.

beaconstudios 6y ago
Must be semantic drift then because my understanding of the definition in Lean Startup was that it was a moderate course correction based on what you learned, not throwing the whole thing out. Semantic drift happens though, and pivot certainly sounds nicer than "we gave up to do something else", so it's liable to become a broader term out of sheer convenience.