Types of Sinister Pivots - Andrew Chen
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Transition from B2B to B2C. “Going from a B2B with networks and expertise to a consumer is like asking a soccer player to suddenly do ballet.”
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Add chat/social/notification functions. “If people don’t love your product, you can send them 100 notifications and they’ll still be indifferent. The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”
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Adding trendy technologies such as AI and Web3. “Adding AI or Web3 doesn’t magically solve the problem. Rather, it just gives you the feeling that ‘this is just something they added.’”
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Hasty platformization. “If you haven’t solved a small problem, trying to solve a bigger problem will only mean a bigger failure.”
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Switch from paid to free. “If people aren’t paying for your product, don’t expect them to suddenly love it just because you give it away for free.”
Startups are inherently difficult journeys. Pivots are often necessary, but rather than blindly changing direction, you must deeply understand “why it failed” and approach it strategically based on this.
“Startups must constantly change, but that change must come from learning and insight, not randomness.”
