111–120 of 204 posts
Plaid was originally a budgeting app. After realizing how terrible banking APIs are, they pivoted to building a developer-friendly banking API. Now their valuation is 10B+.
Ahhhh, I didn’t realise the VISA buyout fell through. Plaid then got a 2021 round of $425MM at a $13.4B valuation “according to a person familiar with the matter”. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/07/plaid-hits-13point4-billion-...
BOYSTOYS.COM, which ran a strip club in San Francisco, pivoted to manufacturing antifreeze as GlyEco. Yes, someone did a full-scale IPO for a San Francisco strip club during the original dot-com boom. Ticker symbol GRLZ. SEC central index key 0000931799, if you want to track the history of the company.
In January 1998 the Company changed its name to Alternative Entertainment,THE COMPANY'S BUSINESS The Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, RMA of San Francisco, Inc., a California corporation ("RMA") owns and operates an upscale gentlemen's club in San Francisco, California (the "Club") under the name, "Boys Toys Club." The Company originally intended to operate the Club through Boys Toys Cabaret Restaurants, Inc., a California corporation ("BTC Restaurants") that is currently a dormant corporation with no operations or assets. All assets and operations of BTC Restaurants have been assigned to RMA.
The Company has the following subsidiaries: RMA, BTC Restaurants, andINTERNET-RELATED MATTERS While the Company's name includes the ".com" moniker, this reflected the Company's original intention to pursue business activities involving the use of the internet. Currently, the Company has not had sufficient financial or managerial resources to pursue or develop any significant internet related business: (i) the Company has two internet Web Sites for the Company's public and investor relations (namely, Boystoys.com and Boystoysir.com, respectively) (the "Corporate Web Sites") and (ii) six sites that opened in October 1999 and which have remained in development only. (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000931799/000108638...)
>> In November 2007, after the Company's emergence from bankruptcy in May 2007, the Company's Board of Directors voted to forego any further involvement in the adult entertainment industry. The Company has since decided to explore opportunities in the environmental emissions trading industry and the Company is now positioned itself as a developmental company in that industry. (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000931799/000108638...)
Brian Armstrong pivoted from "payments enabler for Bitcoin" (Bitbank) -- to -- "cryptocurrencies exchange" (Coinbase) : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26815403 In other words, he pivoted from an idea analogous to Visa/PayPal/Stripe/etc -- to -- a forex exchange market and financial broker/custodian. [To downvoters, if my information is incorrect, please add the correction. I linked Brian's 2012 text where he de…
I think you are being downvoted because you pretty clearly need to build the exchange to make the payment thing work. They just never got to that part, so it's arguable if it's a pivot.
Brian Armstrong pivoted from "payments enabler for Bitcoin" (Bitbank) -- to -- "cryptocurrencies exchange" (Coinbase) : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26815403 In other words, he pivoted from an idea analogous to Visa/PayPal/Stripe/etc -- to -- a forex exchange market and financial broker/custodian. [To downvoters, if my information is incorrect, please add the correction. I linked Brian's 2012 text where he de…
I think you are being downvoted because you pretty clearly need to build the exchange to make the payment thing work. They just never got to that part, so it's arguable if it's a pivot.
Edit: it was even earlier than they actually added an exchange – these days it was just a custodial wallet.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The guy doesn’t sound like he’s that good at game companies, still should probably continue though
Unless...This is a mind trick that he uses to trick his mind into thinking that *this time* I'll really develop a game...and then fully expecting that something else will be created! I mean, some other creative people resort to all manner of tricks - like alcohol, weed, etc. - just to trigger the muse and serendipitous invention!
Join out creative gaming company!
(But really we're going to sell SaaS against Microsoft, I'm just not honest with myself yet!)
https://www.inc.com/magazine/20090101/how-hard-could-it-be-t... (2006)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Netflix is a cool one but the transition from rentals to streaming feels more like a natural progression than a pivot.
If it was so natural, a single high level executive at Blockbuster should've seen it coming. Accessible and cheap servers, exponentially increasing internet speeds, and smart devices all happening at once was society-altering. It seems obvious in retrospect but it's just tough to spot.
It also wasn’t obvious.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The man just wants to make MMOs but accidentally keeps creating billion dollar companies!
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.” ― Norman Vincent Peale