The art of the pivot, part 1: The definitive list of successful pivots
The art of the pivot, part 1: The definitive list of successful pivotsDetails behind 30+ pivots, including how they knew it was time to pivot, how long it took them to pivot, and much more👋 Hey, I’m Lenny and welcome to a 🔒 subscriber-only edition 🔒 of my weekly newsletter. Each week I tackle reader questions about building product, driving growth, and accelerating your career. 🚨🙏 Please take my first-ever reader survey 🙏🚨I’ve never run a reader survey in the five years of writing this newsletter. It’s time! Please take my survey. It’ll take 3 minutes, and make the newsletter and podcast more valuable to you. You’re probably thinking, “Why should I spend time on this? Other people will handle it.” Fight that feeling! Please give me your thoughts. Only you can help me make the content better for you.
Based on my research, one in three B2B startups, and one in five consumer startups, pivot before finding their big idea. That’s a lot! Pivoting is the second most consequential decision you’ll make as a founder (second only to committing to your original idea). But it’s a surprisingly under-explored topic, and there’s very little tactical information on how to make this incredibly hard turn. To give the topic the time it deserves, I’m making “The art of the pivot” a two-part series. For part one (this post), I’ve spent the past few weeks combing through my podcast episodes, newsletters, and online interviews to put together the most definitive and detailed breakdown of startup pivots you’ll find anywhere. For 30+ successful pivots, I’ve collected:
Here’s a peek: Subscribe to Lenny's Newsletter to read the rest.Become a paying subscriber of Lenny's Newsletter to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. A subscription gets you:
|
Older messages
Business strategy with Hamilton Helmer (author of 7 Powers)
Sunday, May 5, 2024
Hamilton is one of the world's leading experts on business strategy and the author of the seminal book 7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
This will make you a better decision maker | Annie Duke (author of “Thinking in Bets” and “Quit”, former pro poker…
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Annie is a former professional poker player, decision-making expert, author, and special partner at First Round Capital. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
How Perplexity builds product
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Johnny Ho, co-founder and chief strategy officer, explains how he organizes his teams like slime mold, uses AI to build their AI company, and much more ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Twitter’s former Head of Product opens up: being fired, meeting Elon, changing stagnant culture, building consumer…
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Kayvon was the longest-serving head of product at Twitter and was GM of Twitter's consumer division until the platform was acquired by Elon Musk. He originally joined Twitter in 2015 through the
How to build deeper, more robust relationships | Carole Robin (Stanford GSB professor, “Touchy Feely”)
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Listen now (87 mins) | Brought to you by: • Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments • CommandBar—AI-powered user assistance for modern products and impatient users • The a16z Podcast—Featuring
You Might Also Like
Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM at Slack)
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Kenneth coaches startup leaders on how to prevent burnout, advocate for their desired lifestyle, and make a meaningful impact on the world. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
That’s (Not) A Pipe Dream
Saturday, May 18, 2024
One Of The Most Interesting Companies Being Built Right Now ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
🗞 What's New: Tips for better user onboarding
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Also: Make your business blog stand out!
What’s 🔥 in Enterprise IT/VC #394
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Let's go - great to see developer first infrastructure startups like Vercel + Harness cross the $100M ARR mark - what's next? ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
🐻 $630K ARR - Simple API to generate images
Saturday, May 18, 2024
+ New idea I'm researching right now
🚒 It’s time to pour water on this myth
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Ecommerce is hard. Dear , There's one thing important that you need to know. Some people think running an e-commerce business is a simple, quick way to make money. Many others feel the opposite is
🚀 Carnival Goes 100% Starlink
Friday, May 17, 2024
Plus $ASTS and AT&T six-year partnership, Q1 2024 SPAC earnings, $RDW's new VLEO spacecraft and more! The latest space investing news and updates. View this email in your browser The Space
AI Spending Patterns : It's Not What You Think
Friday, May 17, 2024
Tomasz Tunguz Venture Capitalist If you were forwarded this newsletter, and you'd like to receive it in the future, subscribe here. AI Spending Patterns : It's Not What You Think Ramp
7 best AI video tools for creators — tried and tested
Friday, May 17, 2024
Plus tips, news & Buffer updates for your social media journey Image Hey there 👋🏾 This week was a battle of the robots playing out in real time. Between GPT-4o and Google's Gemini — AI is
10words: Top picks from this week
Friday, May 17, 2024
Today's projects: Viaconvo • BillboardGrid.com • Refact AI • Flot.ai • Botrush • PromptPal • Documenso • insightIQ • SEOBox • AskVideo.ai • SecondBrain.fyi • refine 10words Discover new apps and