3 ms·
I feel like they don't know what pivoting means. The first pivot doesn't sound like a pivot; they built a new business with the same venture money. The second p
by ghc 14y ago
I feel like they don't know what pivoting means. The first pivot doesn't sound like a pivot; they built a new business with the same venture money. The second pivot isn't a pivot either. I think reasonable people would call that "growth and expansion."
Pivoting is supposed to mean that you changed strategic direction based on validated learning. Twitter and Instagram started as pivots. This sounds nothing like that.
- jonathanjaeger 14y agoThey did notice that the design aspect of their previous site was a differentiating factor and extrapolated on that, but I agree it wasn't a pivot.
- mikeryan 14y agoI agree the second "pivot" doesn't sound like a pivot, However w/r/t The first pivot doesn't sound like a pivot; they built a new business with the same venture money. That sounds like a pivot, the way I define it. I agree most pivots do have some tangential relationship from the previous goal thats because you learn where the market is from what you've done. Thats not to say its the only way to find a new market opportunity. I'm not sure why you define Twitter as a pivot and not Fab. Twitter was Odeo which was a podcasting company which was sinking. Evan Williams had blogging experience but Jack Dorsey (as I understand it) was the original idea guy behind Twitter. A lot of pivots aren't related to the original idea that founded the company. For the VCs doing something else with that money is almost more important then just continuing to chase an idea without legs, since once the money is invested they can't reinvest in new ventures.
- o_sam_o 14y agoMoving away from flash sales could be considered a pivot. They may have discovered others (i.e. Gilt) where buying up all the good seconds, or that their buyers where buying the wrong thing and their flash sales where not selling out.
- IsaacL 14y agoPivoting is a random-restart hill climbing algorithm. If you change strategic direction but remain in the same space, that's climbing the hill. If you change to a completely different idea, that's random restart.