I'm always fascinated by the folks who flip a U-turn on their startup like Cloudant. I have to assume it happens far more often in the YC environment. When yo

I'm always fascinated by the folks who flip a U-turn on their startup like Cloudant. I have to assume it happens far more often in the YC environment. When you're just kind of holed up in your bunker and spring something on the world after you've brought it to alpha, I don't think it's so common to throw out what you're working on even if it's for the best. I had a half-year-long entrepreneurial experience when I was 23, but it was basically just me, in the spider hole, coding, and never finishing the product. I was trying to make something technologically cool and didn't know (or care to know) a thing about the business aspect. It was a huge waste from a learning perspective, much less a money perspective, although I did enjoy it. I lacked a co-founder, investors, much of a clue about the market and guidance, but what was fatal was that I was missing feedback and a deadline. I think startups are painfully difficult to assess without a structure that provides honest feedback and a real deadline. I think it's greatly to YC's credit that they have teams that radically alter their focus like Cloudant did, however it turns out.