the founder who couldn't pick (so he pivoted twice)
indecision looks like iteration. sometimes it's cowardice. sometimes it's the best education a founder gets.
met a founder last year who'd built three different products in the same company. each one was interesting. none had traction.
"I'm not a one-idea person," he said. "I like building."
what he was actually saying: I'm afraid to commit.
fast forward 6 months. he pivoted again. This time—because the market forced him—he stayed. One year later, the product that he almost killed had hit product-market fit.
the funny part: every pivot before that taught him something he needed to know to make that final pivot work.
he said: "If I'd committed to product one, I would have built the wrong thing really well." Product two taught him how to talk to his customer. Product three taught him he wasn't listening hard enough.
The lesson isn't "pivot until you find product-market fit." That's advice for the indecisive.
The lesson is: know the difference between learning and running away.
If you pivot because a customer told you a better problem to solve, that's learning. If you pivot because the first product got hard... that's running.
The best way to tell? Ask yourself: "Would the old customer have paid for the new solution?"
If yes, you learned. If no, you quit.