In 100 Meters, Turn Right

The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.

— Albert Einstein

Imagine this: You’re building a product. You believe in it with all your heart. You’ve pitched it to investors, friends, and family, and they’ve nodded along, half-convinced that you might just be onto something big. But then reality hits—no customers, no traction, and worse yet, a rapidly shrinking runway.

You try to pinpoint what’s wrong. Is it the features? Is it the messaging? Maybe it’s too complex, too ambitious. You notice something curious, though. A small group of users keeps returning, not because they love the entire product, but because they love one specific feature. It’s simple, almost trivial, yet it sparks joy in a way nothing else does.

So, you strip away everything else—all the noise, all the distractions. You double down on that one thing, the thing people actually care about. It starts small. A few more users come. Then hundreds. Then thousands. Before you know it, you’ve built something completely new—something the world didn’t know it needed.

That’s what happened to a little-known location-based app in 2009. Its creators, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, originally called it Burbn. The app let users check into locations, earn points, and share photos. But nobody really cared about the check-ins or the points. They cared about one thing—the photos.

Systrom and Krieger listened. They pivoted. They stripped everything down and focused entirely on photo sharing, adding simple filters to make pictures look beautiful.

They called their new creation Instagram.

The app was launched in 2010, and within two months, it had 1 million users. Two years later, Facebook bought it for $1 billion.

There Are a Lot of Them

Did you know YouTube started as a video-based dating site? In its early days, founders Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim launched YouTube as a platform for people to upload videos introducing themselves to potential partners. Their tagline? “Tune in, Hook up.”

The problem? Nobody wanted to upload dating videos. The founders tried paying people $20 just to use the platform—still no luck.

Then, something interesting happened. Users started uploading random videos—clips of their pets, funny moments, and tutorials. Instead of resisting, the team leaned into what people were naturally doing. YouTube pivoted from a dating site to a platform for user-generated video content.

It worked. A year later, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion.

There are a lot of famous pivots. This list includes Twitter transforming from a podcast platform called Odeo, Shopify moving from a snowboard store to an e-commerce giant, Pinterest starting as a shopping app called Tote, PayPal shifting from Palm Pilot payments, Groupon evolving from a social activism site, Flickr pivoting from an online game, and so on.

Why Pivot?

Startups pivot because they listen. They listen to their users and customers, to their failures, and to the opportunities hidden inside their struggles. A pivot is not a sign of defeat; it’s a sign of resilience and resourcefulness.

If you’re an entrepreneur facing tough times, ask yourself:

• What’s the one thing people really love about my product?

• Is there an unexpected way people are using it?

• What problem are we solving, and can we solve it differently?

  
  

The most successful startups didn’t start off perfectly. They adapted. They found gold, whereas others saw rubble.

So, next time you feel lost, listen to the market navigators and remember: in 100 meters, turn right. The road might look unfamiliar, but it could lead you to exactly where you need to be. And this move might just change everything.

What’s your pivot story? Whether you’re an entrepreneur, manager, or dreamer, pivots happen everywhere. Share yours in the comments below!