# The art of the startup pivot from a founder-CTO point of view

DevFeed: [The art of the startup pivot from a founder-CTO point of view](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-art-of-the-startup-pivot-from-a-founder-cto-point-of-view-34702.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://medium.com/unexpected-token/the-art-of-the-startup-pivot-from-a-founder-cto-point-of-view-b8747f80b5be?source=rss----2d2624499d2---4>)

Author: Yann Lechelle

Published: 2015-04-30T13:15:07Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [eFounders](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/efounders.md>)

Topics: [risk-management](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/risk-management.md>), [Business Security](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/business-security.md>)

Tags: [efounders](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/efounders.md>), [management](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/management.md>), [risk-management](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/risk-management.md>), [startup](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/startup.md>), [startups](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/startups.md>), [tech](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tech.md>)

## AI overview

An opinion piece examines startup pivots from a founder-CTO perspective, covering why strategic changes occur, their effects on founders, investors, revenue, and company structure, and how repeated pivot experience may inform risk management.

## Source excerpt

A risk management perspectiveYann Lechelle (LinkedIn, Twitter) is a Paris-based entrepreneur with a number of pivots under his belt. He was founder and CEO at Etheryl (acquired by private investors), co-founder at KickYourApp.com (acquired by Change), co-founder and COO/CTO at Appsfire.com (acquired by MNG), co-founder at Sonetin.com and currently COO at Snips.ai using AI to make technology disappear. Yann occasionally invests in and advises other startups, on pivots among other things!~ TL;DR: this post discusses the generic notion of a startup pivot. Technically minded readers might prefer to focus on the product & tech sections, or anything else in bold. Pivots are a fact of life in the startup world. Yet, very few founders, especially first-time founders, will provision for it. The founder mindset is typically focused on a single go-to-market strategy. The investors are sold on the potential based on that initial strategy, signing off a budget calibrated accordingly. Everyone sings the same tune until the shareholders realize, hopefully before it's too late, that the strategy is going nowhere, and that a radical change is required. This scenario occurs more often than not, over 65% of the time according to Fred Wilson. While this iterative process appears natural, and with the benefit of hindsight, accepted and even praised as part of the startup folklore, it remains a traumatic event from the inside, and possibly a direct cause for failure. Reversely, if done right, a pivot is almost inevitably cause for success. Structurally, there can only be a handful of pivots within the lifetime of a company. Repeat entrepreneurs may have experienced it multiple times and therefore developed their art of the pivot... hence becoming pivot artists, a trait that VCs should consider as key risk management expertise! Here are a few awesome pivot artists: Multi-pivot repeat entrepreneur Stewart Butterfield: from video game to Flickr and from video game to Slack; product & vision p