[sircastor]

>But for the past three years, we've struggled to find the right problem to solve and gain even a small traction. Each time we pivoted and applied to YC (and were rejected), we learned something new.

Respectfully, I’ve never particularly understood this approach to business. It seems like a lot of VC-funded or VC-hopeful companies take the approach of “I know I should be in business, I just don’t know in what” which feels entirely backwards to me. I understand the company that starts out selling one service (renting DVDs for instance) and then shifts to an adjacent business (streaming movies) because one falls out or there’s opportunities to expand. But the hunting around for a market seems bizarre.

[s1artibartfast]

It is essentially the the same sentiment that other people have when looking for a good job.

If you want to work for yourself, you look for opportunities to do so.

VC look for opportunities to invest.

Everybody is simply searching for a way to make money the way they want to.

[debarshri]

I have rarely seen an entrepreneur execute the same plan that the person had since the inception of the idea. That's the nature of the startup, you have to keep pivoting to avoid a crowded space, discover new markets when you have an insight. If you haven't pivoted then you probably haven't discovered an untapped market. Building a startup is all about testing hypothesis and running experiments. More often, these experiments fail and you have to create a new hypothesis. You will be surprised how often people have similar ideas and the unique idea you think you have is not so unique and have lot of execution nitty gritty. I have seen later stage orgs pivot too. And boy, pivoting is an art too. You can pivot when you are selling none or selling a lot easily. When you are selling few, you have a hope that the product might work and you get stuck in the chasm. I'm glad these guys have found a way to get out of it.

[auspex]

Finding an undiscovered market doesn’t have to be from a pivot. If you’ve lived the problem or are on the edge of a technology or power curve yourself, you can uncover a new market without a pivot.

[1123581321]

Say you have ten business ideas you really like, that you think could be successful. You realize there is some luck involved, and that you aren’t going to be as good enough at each idea as you’d like to be, or that you simply won’t figure out how to interest enough people even if you’re really good at making the product. So you keep trying your ideas until one works out.

[mettamage]

Isn't the "see what sticks" method the only method applicable in entrepreneurship?

[1123581321]

Essentially. The parent comment was struggling with the idea of viewing entrepreneurship as seeing which market would stick, rather than which product would stick. I was (poorly) trying to connect the concepts.