Fab's Second Pivot
betashop.com
betashop.com
Unsubscribed again- hopefully this time it's permanent. It appears I am not alone, either:
Pivoting is supposed to mean that you changed strategic direction based on validated learning. Twitter and Instagram started as pivots. This sounds nothing like that.
However w/r/t The first pivot doesn't sound like a pivot; they built a new business with the same venture money.
That sounds like a pivot, the way I define it. I agree most pivots do have some tangential relationship from the previous goal thats because you learn where the market is from what you've done. Thats not to say its the only way to find a new market opportunity. I'm not sure why you define Twitter as a pivot and not Fab. Twitter was Odeo which was a podcasting company which was sinking. Evan Williams had blogging experience but Jack Dorsey (as I understand it) was the original idea guy behind Twitter.
A lot of pivots aren't related to the original idea that founded the company. For the VCs doing something else with that money is almost more important then just continuing to chase an idea without legs, since once the money is invested they can't reinvest in new ventures.
With regards to the "was it a pivot" comments below.
Fab was first fabulis, for 13 months. We built a ton of product and a small but loyal following. We then shut it down to pursue our passion. That's a pivot.
Regarding Fab's 2nd pivot in 2012, we pivoted our business from a drop-ship model to an inventory model. That's quite a pivot.
A pivot is named as such because your business is keeping one foot in the ground while changing direction. This is done after testing your initial assumptions, normally with no more than an MVP.
This might just be semantics, but it seems like a significant difference to me.
That's the point of the post, and it's an impressive achievement. Read Tony Hsieh's (Zappos) "Delivering Happiness" if you want to appreciate how hard it is to build a business on drop-shipping, and how hard it is to move to full inventory.
I realize this isn't a battle worth fighting, but everyone needs to stop being pedantic over the use of the word "pivot". It had meaning before Eric Ries used it, and it will continue to have intrinsic meaning no matter how narrowly it's defined in the context of the Lean Startup movement. The business changed directions. Let the man call it a pivot.
I really hope this is a mistake and not part of this third "pivot".
[BTW, you might want to be careful with the celebrity endorsement. I can't think of a celebrity I find more noxious than Kutcher, so attaching his name to Fab makes me much much less likely to buy anything from you again. Especially when you're forcing that association into my inbox. Blech.]
Do you see Etsy as competition?
You mention a custom built supply chain tech and strong mobile/ecommerce sales. You also share a lot of stats and operational details about the biz on your blog. Would you consider encouraging your tech team to be similarly open? Blogging, open sourcing code, conferences/presentations.
I don't understand the reason for the huge growth and expansion.
What problem are they solving that is creating such huge growth?
Very Impressive, but I don't understand WHY they are successful.
I'd be grateful if you could let us know some more info. Thanks!
[I have patent trolls on the brain after reading various HN articles on the topic of late...]