I think it’s true that every startup needs to know how to pivot and understand this very early on in from the beginning because if the original idea isn’t quite working or isn’t getting the market traction you were hoping for you need to know when to walk away from the old idea and come up with a new direction. The photo above is an iconic scene from the TV series Friends and dealing with your product in your startup can feel like moving a couch at times, it is easier with more hands but sometimes you need to look back and think is this the best strategy? Too many startups get hung up on their original idea and trajectory and miss out on larger opportunities or they develop something is a closed loop expecting it to pay off on delivery but the majority of successful startups end up launching a product that was very different from the original outset because it is the users that shape the trajectory of a successful product. Look at Twitch, they first launched as a reality TV streaming service and were struggling to make money but they found a small group of users that used their product passionately was gamers so they pivoted towards that and later sold to Amazon for $1B USD
About 5 years ago, when the HTC Vive VR headset was the new hot tech item, a couple of friends and I had a crazy idea and we decided to create some VR software. The 3 of us decided to create virtual reality software for the building industry, at this point CAD software didn’t have it built in and there weren’t any off the shelf options because everyone was using VR for gaming at the time. I had recently designed and built a new house with my own two hands and I found it extremely annoying that I built my house with a much too small walk-in pantry, on paper it looked fine but in reality there isn’t enough storage for food so I was sold on the idea and that it could be a solution people would pay for. I set off to validate the idea and talk to a few building companies and the small handful that I canvased were keen to see something but wouldn’t commit until they saw a working demo.
We all had full time jobs at the time because we couldn’t afford to quit our jobs to try a startup but we managed to create a working product and get some meetings with some big builders. Based on the feedback from the managers we made changes, added features that they requested and really polished the product so it was spectacular. In the end we had turned a computer game engine into VR software so that somebody could load up a CAD file and walk through their future house in a 1:1 scale before committing to the expense of a build. The whole idea was clients could walk through their house before it was built, be able to make changes and ensure they are getting what they signed up for, if you build a house too big you have over paid for unused space and if you build it too small it is extremely expensive to extend during or after construction. Also a lot of people can’t interpret 2D drawing as a 3D product in their mind and we had changed that for them.
So what happened? They loved it, the managers loved it and the sales people loved it because it was cool and nifty . . . but . . . they didn’t adopt it. Why not? As much as the managers liked the VR; the sales people felt it was extra work to sell a house that they weren’t going to have any benefit from, they could sell houses without it and the fewer changes a client makes the more streamlined the build and the easier their jobs were. Needless to say it was a bit of a punch in the guts and this was not something we could have possibly seen from a mile away because we had created everything the company wanted and then they say that they don’t want it. Even though it was beneficial for the home owner and would mitigate so many mistakes before construction they said no and decided to not tell clients that it was an option. So we pivoted.
We reshaped the software a fraction and changed the market, we then targeted architects because some of them had clients that can’t understand 2D drawings. We knew it would be a race against the clock because in no time at all the big CAD players like Archicad & Revit would have caught up and have their own versions with much larger budgets than us and it would be a much better product. So we had a successful side hustle where we would charge 1m2 of the build rate to showcase a bespoke plan to architects and their clients. We would rock up with all the hardware and VR kit and demo their house at the architects office or the clients home and they loved it!
Morrel of the story, keep looking in every direction because it is likely that the vision you set out may be right in front of you but it is likely to go in a different direction.
In my current project I have already pivoted because I have been listening to feedback and getting external validations from people. I have now turned the project into a much larger monster than I had originally set out to be but it is to capture a larger market with not too much extra overhead. The other advice I would give if you are trying to make your startup a reality is to quit your job, if you haven’t cut all ties to income you feel like you still have a fallback and you want to make your startup a success, I have no doubt in my mind if one of us had of gone full time on the VR it would have been extremely profitable rather than just a side hustle. I’m very lucky now that with my new project I have set myself up so that I quit my job and now dedicate 100% of my effort into the project and I’m loving every minute of it.
