Part 5 of the Reinvention Series — So you went out and asked your users a bunch of questions. You explored. You probably discovered a whole lot of new information about the ways in which you can tweak (or maybe radically change) your product. Well, users are THE best R&D resources you will ever find. The absolute…

Part 4 of the Reinvention Series — So you’ve lost conviction in your startup’s original premise, and in order to confront the doubt you’re now facing, you’ve aligned your stakeholders on a Double Loop Pivot to see if there’s a new idea you can go all-in on. How can you make the most of this window of…

Part 3 of the Reinvention Series — If you’re a founder who has lost conviction in the original premise of your startup and you’re considering a pivot, this post is for you. Pivoting is a very difficult thing because it involves admitting that your prior conviction was mistaken for some reason or another. …

Part 2 of the Reinvention Series — When you’re doing a startup, something is always broken. There’s always a fire that threatens to destroy the beautiful but fragile empire you’ve started to build. The product crashes and users are pissed — or worse, no one really even notices A key hire doesn’t happen and you gotta keep…

Part 1 of the Reinvention Series — To be a founder is to be a modern day alchemist: through a kind of magic, you create something valuable out of nothing. Of course some founders start with capital and connections gained from their years of work at a big tech company, or connections to friends at VC firms…

A series about the art of the pivot — Part 1: Conviction: A Startup Founder’s Most Valuable Asset Part 2: Doubt: A Startup Founder’s Greatest Threat Part 3: Align: Why The Double Loop Pivot Is the Best Way To Explore Changing Your Business Part 4: Discover: How to Learn From Users During a Pivot Exploration Period Part 5: Realize…

I write a lot about pivoting as a strategic move for a startup. But as a founder, you have a number of options when you feel like your current business isn’t working and you’re stuck in the trough of sorrow. Here are 4 alternative tactics to consider instead of pivoting: …

I’ve never seen a business plan competition winning startup become wildly successful. Not saying it’s never happened, but it’s definitely rare. Because startup ideas should be contentious. If all the judges thinks it’s a good idea, it’s already too late — or there’s a giant blind spot in their thinking. …

Once a startup finds success with a pivot, the founders naturally focus on the new direction and gloss over their earlier history. Here are 5 pivots that created $43B+ in value — have you heard of them all? 👇 1️⃣ Shared dinners → Sneakerhead heaven Before they became a $3.7B…