Good eye. Not always the case at successful companies (e.g. Notion, Figma, Airbnb), but does come up a bunch. The value of velocity is probably related to the industry they're in and the competitive landscape.
STARTUPS
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Twenty Percent of Biggest Companies Emerge from Strategic Pivots
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It seems like around 20% of the biggest companies come from pivots, both across B2B and B2C. One in five! Some of the best examples I'm aware of in B2B: @Segment
: Applied to YC with a university classroom lecture tool, then spent about 15 months pivoting and building various -
NYSE and NASDAQ Battle for New IPO Listings
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get hype https://
wsj.com/articles/nyse-
nasdaq-battle-for-new-listings-in-sign-of-ipo-awakening-bb25b8f8
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Replit Launches Expandable Storage for Developer Projects
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This is the first of many improvements towards a more powerful Replit. We can’t wait to see the expansion of ideas built with Expandable Storage. Be sure to tag us when you ship. For more read here. https://
blog.replit.com/expandable-sto
rage
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Evaluating Problem Importance and Market Opportunity Delta
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How important to potential customers is the problem you’re exploring, on a scale of 1 to 10? How underserved is the current market, on a scale of 1 to 10? And where would your solution rank? Look for a delta 4+. For more, don't miss my full post
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How Zip Founders Found $1B Market in Procurement
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The founders of @theziphq went through a variety of ideas looking for a big and underserved market they were excited about (talking to 75+ potential customers!), and eventually focused on procurement (note: their company is currently valued at over $1B):
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Emerging Trends, Transformative Tech, Customer Validation Strategy
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Questions to reflect on: What’s a trend that’s emerging but underserved (e.g. security, collaboration)? What’s a transformative technology that’s emerging that’s underutilized (e.g. data scalability)? How many potential customers have you spoken with about your idea?
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Code-Driven Validation: Connecting Ideas to Real User Needs
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What I realized was all our ideas sounded great, but they were not connected to a user pain. For us, writing code, even though it’s not the most efficient use of time, helped us explore ideas best. It forced us to talk to people and build a mental model of the real world.”
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Validate Your Tech Ideas Early With Potential Users
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Key: Start with a space you're excited about—that's big and underserved—and ideate. But, as soon as you have a concept you're excited about, quickly talk to potential users. @zoink narrowed his focus to two areas he saw potential in (drones and WebGL) and then started digging:
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Notion founders pivoted no-code builder into focused product
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@ivanhzhao and @akothari at @NotionHQ started with the general idea of a no-code app builder and eventually (four years later!) noticed pull for a specific set of features—and leaned fully into that.