Startups pivot all the time. Some of the biggest companies out there, like Slack and Shopify, started as something totally different. But let’s be real. Pivoting after you have already built a product is frustrating.
You have put in months of work, spent money, maybe even launched. Then you realize the market is not biting. Now you have to shift gears, rebuild, and try again. That is expensive, time-consuming, and honestly, exhausting.
What if you could pivot before you even start? Instead of waiting for the market to tell you that you got it wrong, you can figure it out early and adjust before you sink too many resources into the wrong direction. Here are three ways to do just that, including one that most founders totally overlook.
1. Talk to Customers Before You Build
A lot of founders avoid customer conversations early on. They think they need a working product before they can get feedback. That is completely backward. You are not trying to sell something yet. You are trying to learn.
Instead of asking, Would you use this? or Does this sound helpful?, dig deeper. People will often say yes just to be polite, but that does not mean they would actually pay for or use your product.
Here is what you should ask instead:
- How big of a problem is this for you? Is it a major headache or just a minor inconvenience?
- If you had unlimited budget, would this be the next thing you buy, or are there bigger priorities?
- How are you dealing with this issue now? Even if the process is messy, they are surviving without your product.
- Are you actively looking for a solution, or just waiting to see what comes along?
- What worries you about adopting a solution like this?
- How do you decide what to buy? Is it one person's decision or a whole committee?
- What kind of pricing model makes sense to you? Pay-as-you-go, per user, or something else?
If these conversations do not reveal an urgent need or show that people are actively searching for a solution, you might need to rethink your idea. The last thing you want is to build a business that is just an afterthought for your customers.
2. Test Your Business Assumptions
Every startup is based on a bunch of assumptions. If even one of those assumptions is wrong, your whole business model could fall apart. That is why you need to test them before you go too far.
And no, you do not need perfect data. You just need a rough idea of whether your assumptions hold up.
Here are some things you should check:
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC): Can you actually acquire customers without burning too much cash?
- Cost of goods sold (COGS): If you are making a physical product, can you do it profitably at scale?
- Operational costs: How many engineers, support reps, or salespeople will you need?
- Pricing: Will people pay what you need to charge to make the business work?
- Marketing messages: Are people responding to the way you talk about your product?
- Reachability: Can you actually get in front of the right audience?
For example, if you are launching a SaaS tool, try running a few LinkedIn ads and see if people click. If you are building an e-commerce brand, set up a simple landing page and see if anyone pre-orders. These small tests can give you valuable insights without sinking months of work into something that might not fly.
3. Run a Pre-Mortem
Most people know about post-mortems. Something goes wrong, and then you look back to figure out what happened. But by then, the damage is already done.
A pre-mortem flips that around. Instead of asking, What went wrong?, you assume that your startup has already failed and ask, Why did it fail?
Get your team, advisors, or co-founders together and have everyone brainstorm all the reasons your business could fail. Some questions to consider:
- Did customers not care enough about the problem?
- Was it too expensive to acquire users?
- Did a big competitor crush the market?
- Did the sales cycle take forever?
- Was the technology harder to build than expected?
Once you have a list, you now have a roadmap of things to test. If a failure point seems likely, you can run an experiment or tweak your plan before committing too much.
The best part about pre-mortems is that they make it okay to talk about potential problems. In a normal meeting, no one wants to be the person who says, I think this could fail because of X. But when failure is the starting assumption, people are more open about sharing concerns.
What to Consider as You Move Forward
No startup avoids uncertainty, but you can avoid obvious mistakes. The key is to learn fast and adjust early, before you waste time and money.
- Talk to potential customers before you build. If they are not desperate for a solution, rethink your approach.
- Test your business assumptions early. A few quick experiments can save you months of wasted effort.
- Run a pre-mortem. Figure out what could go wrong before it actually does.
The earlier you catch problems, the easier they are to fix. Do the work upfront, and you will be in a much better position to build something people actually want.
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