The origins of many large companies are not as straightforward as they seem. It can take many people months or even years to find the right product market fit, and sometimes it’s far from the original idea. The term ‘axis’ was first used publicly Eric ReeseAn entrepreneur and author explains in his book how course correction by founders is critical to success.

In India, two leading startups, Zepto And Razor PayAxis in their early days. Interestingly, both of these unicorns are alumni of San Francisco-based startup school Y Combinator, which steers founders in the right direction with an acceptance rate of less than 1%. Globally too, several YC-backed companies viz Clipboard Health, Brakes, Goatand Escher Realityamong many others went through feedback loops at YC to reach their user base.

“The founder pivot. That’s what happens at YC. You go out and test your product with customers, and if it doesn’t work, you try something else. Idea Labyrinth is a great competition, Gary Tan wrote on X, commenting on the recent launch of Void AI, which is interestingly enough, the fifth YC-backed AI code editor.

Should you fast pivot?

There are many examples of this at the global level. However, below are a few companies that made a turnaround within a year of launch.

InstagramA social photo-sharing app founded in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, it initially started as Burbn, a location-sharing app where people could check in and upload photos. However, within a year the founders focused entirely on photo sharing, its main and most used feature.

Instagram reported two billion monthly active users as of earlier this year. Later acquired by Facebook (now Meta), Instagram’s journey — both in its pivot and acquisition — is a masterclass in strategy.

In addition, Twitter Originally there was a podcasting company called Audio. It is interesting to note the evolution of the social network to what it is today. The launch of iTunes made Odeo’s business model useless, forcing the founders to develop a new idea. In October 2022, Elon Musk acquired Twitter. Rebranded as X.

SlackA cloud-based communications platform for enterprises, was initially founded as an online gaming company called Glitch. Due to the lack of commercial traction, the founders decided to build on the chat feature, which was underrated at the time. In a wayslow was the result of an error!

YoutubeA leading online video platform started as a dating site where people uploaded videos talking about their partners. But within a week, it was realized that the idea was not so unique. Their internal technology was used to create a video sharing app, generalizing the core product beyond just dating videos. This One of the first videos to be uploaded to YouTube was posted by founder Javed Karim. WhatsAppthe messaging giant has a similar story that started out simply as an app to share statuses with friends.

PayPalan online payments platform, began as an encryption services application called Confinity. His journey to what it is today involves not one but several axes. Later, eBay acquired PayPal in a $1.5 billion deal.

Some took more than a year.

For example, huggable face, An AI and machine learning collaboration platform, started as a fun app. After two and a half years, the founder launched a model he had been working on. It gained an instant traction.

ConceptAn all-in-one productivity platform, it originated as a website builder. With a very unsuccessful start, it took four years for the founders to pivot and build its common feature. The founders fired the team and moved to Kyoto to rebuild the app from scratch.

to twista popular streaming platform, started as a 24-hour reality TV webcaster, streaming the life of Justin Kahn. It took the founders five years to differentiate the games and streaming side of the startup from the rest. The basic product was applied to a different problem. Later, Amazon acquired Twitch for about $1 billion.

The trend continues among startups.

Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022, many startups have focused on creating an AI-first product or solution. Earlier this year, SoftBank signaled its pivot to focus on AI, after funding several AI-powered startups in the ecosystem.

Funding for AI startups in India totaled $8.2 million in the April-June 2024 quarter. Despite the excitement, many AI startups are acquired by a large corporation due to challenges such as funding.

To stand out, this is essential. The beginning Focusing on creating the next LLM rather than creating existing use cases for AI. Many founders go through the dilemma and decision-making process of either merging, pivoting, or acquiring when their startup doesn’t do well in the early days.

Pivoting may not always be the answer

As seen above, while pivoting is considered normal, and sometimes healthy for startups, there are times when founders should be careful about it.

“If you pivot again and again, and again and again, it causes whiplash. Whiplash is bad because it causes founders to give up and not want to work on it anymore, and that fact It kills the company. Oddly enough, it’s more deadly for your company to get whiplash and be sad than to work on a bad idea. said Dalton Caldwell, Partner at Y Combinator.

Y Combinator even has a term for this – it’s called ‘pivot hell’, and founders should avoid it at all costs.