Everyone Knows What A Pivot Is, Right?
Recently I joined three founders and fellow business school alumni to talk to an audience about entrepreneurship. During the session we were asked how we think about ‘pivoting’ and how often it crosses our mind. This question piqued my interest for two reasons. Determining how and when (or even if it’s possible) to pivot is intriguing for the simple reason that it’s a deeply venture-specific decision and as a result it’s nearly impossible to apply the pivot logic of one venture to another startup. The second reason, and I don’t think I’m betraying the confidence of the audience by bringing this up, is that this question was couched in a way that queried whether founders regularly pivot at the first signs of market rejection (and by extension do we, as founders, have a safe path back to a salaried job if the venture doesn’t work out).
The questioner was basically asking how we manage risk. In doing so, he reminded me that ‘pivoting’ is a term in vogue.
The founders responded with two messages:
- Understand how ‘pivoting’ can be perceived. There is a school of thought which equates pivoting to failure (which is obviously problematic when trying to foster innovation and entrepreneurship), but the more salient point came in the second message.
- Entrepreneurship isn’t linear. The validation of one or a series of hypotheses to reach product market fit at scale is the result of a litany of mistakes, small wins, course corrections and (self-made) luck that takes time.
For those using the term ‘pivot’ as a synonym for recalculating strategy before comprehensively validating a hypothesis, it’s time to reconsider the definition of pivot. A great example to drive the point home is Pivoting From Fanbase to Nextdoor.
[embed]https://youtu.be/l7CsA0XohiU[/embed]
