The definitive list of successful pivots

Social network

Internal hackathon: Jack Dorsey built a prototype at a hackathon; founders got excited about it.

Realized it was a bad idea after Apple launched a competitor

A podcasting company called Odeo, allowing users to create, record, and share podcasts online

On-demand ridesharing

Internal hackathon: Team built a prototype at a hackathon; founders got excited about it.

Growth plateaued

Peer-to-peer carpooling service called Zimride

Video messaging and screen recording tool

Noticed one feature showing pull: Noticed one element of the product (video recording) that people were using and loving, and went all in.

Low retention

A subject-matter-expert marketplace

Performance management platform

Noticed an adjacent idea showing pull: HR leaders founder was talking to were all looking for a better performance management solution.

Low retention

OKR software

Online photo-sharing platform

Noticed one feature showing pull: Users were using and loving one feature of the game.

Growth plateaued

An online role-playing game called "Game Neverending"

User feedback platform

Noticed pull for internal tool: A internal survey tool they built for themselves was getting a lot of interest from other founders.

Lukewarm interest

A way to organize cloud files collaboratively

Procurement SaaS platform

Following the pain: Nonstop ideation, prototyping, and talking to people in founder’s network looking for pain.

Saw a bigger market opportunity

Tried 5-6 ideas, including an accountant hiring marketplace

Life video shopping

?

Lukewarm interest

Auctions for Funko Pops

Online video-streaming service

Working backward from the future.

Market shifted to online streaming

DVD-by-mail service

Meditation app

Doing it manually, and seeing the need and opportunity to productize it.

Wanted to make their work more scalable

Meditation event business in London

On-demand car

Lyft launched ridesharing.

Saw a bigger market opportunity

On-demand limo

Online video platform

Exploring an interesting piece of internal tech: Realized there wasn't value in the problem space (video dating), but the tech they built could be generalized.

Lukewarm interest

Dating site where people upload videos of themselves talking about the partner of their dreams

Online reviews of local businesses

Noticed one feature showing pull: Noticed people using the product in a surprising way (leaving reviews on their own), and went all in.

Lukewarm interest

Tool to automate emailing friends for recommendations

Messaging app

Exploring an interesting piece of tech: When Apple launched push notifications, founder explored it for sharing status more proactively

Lukewarm interest

App for showing statuses of your friends

Automated security and compliance

Following the pain: Nonstop ideation, prototyping, and talking to people in founder's network looking for pain.

Lukewarm interest

B2B Alexa

Live streaming platform for games

Noticed one market showing pull: Noticed a small % of users streaming games on the platform; founders got excited about it and doubled down.

Growth plateaued

A Big Brother-style show called Justin.tv streaming Justin Kan's life 24/7

Online enterprise communication platform

Noticed their internal tool showing pull: Realized employees loved using this one chat feature they built, and went all in.

Realized it wasn't ever going to become a big business

Massively multiplayer online game called Glitch

E-commerce platform

Noticed their internal tool showing pull: Their e-commerce infrastructure was seeing a lot of interest from other sellers.

Realized there's much bigger opportunity selling software

An online store for selling snowboards called Snowdevil

No-code internal tool builder

Brainstorming and tinkering: Thinking about their past unique experience and problem they’ve run into personally.

Low retention

Venmo for the U.K. called Cashew

Customer data platform

Exploring an interesting piece of internal tech: Co-founder spent weekend building out one piece of tech he thought was interesting; launched it and saw immediate interest.

Little to no interest

University classroom lecture tool

Social platform to discover, save, and share visual content

Noticed one feature showing pull: Noticed one element of the product (collecting images) that people were using and loving, and went all in.

Low retention

Digital retail catalogs app called Tote

Financial services APIs

Exploring an interesting piece of internal tech: A customer (Venmo) asked about licensing their backend infrastructure.

Low retention

Tried 5-6 ideas, including an app that recommends ways to could spend less money

Online payments

Brainstorming and tinkering: Nonstop ideation and exploration looking for big opportunities.

Realized it was a bad idea

Encyption for handheld devices called Fieldlink, then beaming money between PalmPilots

All-in-one productivity and collaboration platform

Noticed one feature showing pull: Noticed one element of the product (editor + collaboration) that people were using and loving, and went all in.

Low retention

No-code app/website builder, Webflow meets Figma

Cloud identity management

Noticed one feature showing pull: Talked to 100 people and they kept asking about identity.

Lukewarm interest

Reliability monitoring and reporting tool for cloud services called SaaSure

Social photo-sharing app

Noticed one feature showing pull: Users were using and loving one element of the product (photo sharing).

Low retention

Location check-in app called Burbn

Collaborative hub for developing and sharing open-source machine learning models

Exploring an interesting piece of internal tech: Co-founder spent weekend building out a piece of tech he thought was interesting; launched it and saw immediate interest.

Lukewarm interest

AI Tamagotchi

Cryptocurrency exchange platform

Noticed an adjacent idea showing pull: Talked to users churning asking if they'd use it if they could buy Bitcoin, and they all said yes, so they built it.

Low retention

Hosted Bitcoin wallet

A group messaging app that integrates video, voice, and text

Exploring an interesting piece of internal tech: An engineer suggested building out one piece of tech he thought was interesting.

Realized it wasn't ever going to become a big business

A mobile multiplayer game called "Fates Forever"

Enterprise cloud-based content management platform

Noticed bigger market showing pull: They realized the business opportunity was much bigger if they pivot to the enterprise.

Realized there's much bigger opportunity in B2B

A consumer cloud-based file storage and sharing service called Box.net

Business credit card

Brainstorming and tinkering: Thinking about their past unique experience, and problem they've run into personally.

Realized it was a bad idea

A virtual reality headset called Veyond

Analytics platform

Noticed pull for internal tool: A internal analytics tool they built for themselves was getting a lot of interest from other founders.

Low retention

A hands-free texting app called Sonalight