How many times have you pivoted from your start up ideas and what made you pivot ?
Benard Ogutu
25 replies
After spending months developing a complex idea, I realized that it would require a significant amount of time and resources that I didn't have. Therefore, I decided to pursue a simpler SaaS idea instead.
Replies
Charlie Kor@charlie_lee1
Oh, I believe you make the right decision. Focus on the solution, not the problem, was the reason for pivoting. There is no desire to pay for ...
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@charlie_lee1 I can relate to this I've tried to build products out of excitement from some technology rather than focus on solving real problems?
Pivoted 2 times. The first time we made decision after soft launch. The second one after getting 2m attributed data.
I think I pivoted at least 5 times and the things that made me do this pivot what technical reasons.
I was providing a digital solution for receipts. The idea was to avoid paper receipts totally and digitize for the entire process.
And initially my first version was a version that would not be adopted by mass people. => 1st pivot
Then second version would not be secure even if it could be a little bit more adopted than previously => 2nd & 3rd pivot
Then for the final version, because of technical and business reasons, I had to test 2 ways to deliver => 4th and 5th pivot
In a word, technical reasons and mass adoption reasons
But honestly, I should have tried all versions I could try with my partners instead of pivoting because of overthinking
We should have let people play with the tool and that's all
Don't think too much, execute
Hey @devezehugo, I totally agree with what you said earlier. It's always a good idea to get some feedback from your users before deciding to pivot. Overthinking can really mess things up. I had the same problem when I was working on a product some time ago. I kept adding unnecessary features thinking that users would want them, but I ended up with a bunch of technical issues and couldn't even get my MVP out.
@benard_ogutu also agree with your comment
And the main issue is that the more you want to improve your product the more you spend time on it the more you master it and the less you see how to create an MVP and not a final version
I found a personal solution to avoid this ➡️ telling myself « it’s never going to be perfect »
By avoiding my perfectionist trait I can move to the next step
@devezehugo I think your personal solution of acknowledging that "it's never going to be perfect" is a great mindset to have. It allows you to move forward and make progress without getting weighed down by perfectionism. Keep up the positive attitude and best of luck with your product development!
@benard_ogutu thanks a lot ! You too ! We should follow us to keep an eye on our respective projects haha
I've actually pivoted quite a few times over the last couple of months. From customers' feedback, we got to realise that our value proposition was too ahead of its time, so we adapted it and changed it to be more relevant and to resonate with people.
@thomas_boulesteix It's great to hear that you have been able to pivot successfully based on the feedback from your customers. Adapting and changing your value proposition to be more relevant and resonate better with people is a smart move.
So far only once for evoke-app.com, but it might happen again soon.
Our first pivot was making an image generation tool that was geared more towards the consumers, but now we're more B2B with an API
Pivoting is not a bad thing at all and is has proven its worthiness in a lot of big companies in the past. However, overthinking to cause pivots before things bloom can cause an endless game of chasing the perfect market. Personally, we have made a pivot once, and almost a second time. But after thinking about it for 2 days, we decided to not pivot, and we are now glad we didn't.
In my opinion for your case I think its a good idea to pivot to something simpler / easier to start. The skills & network gained from that can compound greatly into your next company / idea in the future paying off greatly. It also can help you build a team over the next few years that will minimize the complexity of this current idea making it more viable then.
In short, pivots are good, just think them through first. A few days of thinking could save you years of misdirection.
@skillprepare
Thank you for your thoughtful comment.
I agree it's essential to take the time to evaluate the market, gather feedback from potential customers, and make informed decisions before making any major changes to your product or business strategy.
Too many times, as dive deeper into target audience I get more ideas, and disregard some older one's.
If done properly, it will refine your final product
I was going to start a creative agency but hated the traditional model. I then decided to productize the service (Subscription model) as I learned it would serve my target audience the best.