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Ask HN: Which startups have the most interesting pivot stories?

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Re: Ask HN: Which startups have the most interesting pivot stories?

#151

Post by madamelic »

forkLding wrote: post #124

Discord itself says this in their welcome messages but they used to be a game development studio that tried to develop an mobile MOBA game called Fates Forever back in 2014. However they found VOIP software to be pretty problematic and pivoted to develop VOIP software for gamers. Now they're a very popular chat client. https://discord.fandom.com/wiki/Discord#:~:text=Advertisemen... .

Between Discord and Slack, I think something SaaS companies need to consider is looking at play and how to genuinely integrate play / fun into how they develop product. Both of these huge companies spawned out of video games and I think we are going to see more spawn this way.

I think play, especially at work, isn't discussed or considered enough and can form a strong core of a good product ("focus on the fun rather than the money") [0]. If a product evokes good feelings, especially if it is being used in an otherwise drab 'setting' ("I need to talk to other people"), people will gravitate towards it over others that don't.

I can't think of a person who is overjoyed to use, say, Microsoft Teams but you will almost certainly find people who love Slack or Discord to the point of pushing their leads to use them.

[0]: https://www.thegamer.com/sid-meier-games-should-focus-on-fun...

Re: Ask HN: Which startups have the most interesting pivot stories?

#152

Post by justusthane »

ErikAugust wrote: post #108
cercatrova wrote: post #100

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

Or, you know, come crashing back to earth at terminal velocity.

Re: Ask HN: Which startups have the most interesting pivot stories?

#153

Post by Ndymium »

indrora wrote: post #141
qznc wrote: post #51

Warren Buffet turned a textile manufacturing company into a holding. An automatic loom manufacture got turned into one of the biggest automobile companies: Toyota Nokia was initially a pulp mill. Microsoft initially sold a BASIC interpreter, then a Unix, then MS-DOS.

Nokia still makes paper and rubber products.

Not that Nokia. Nokian Tyres plc (Nokian Renkaat Oyj) was split in the 80s and is the company making tires. Rubber boots were made by Nokian Footwear (Nokian Jalkineet), split in 1990 and nowadays a brand of Berner Oy. Paper products at Nokia (the city) are made by Nokian Paperi which is a part of Swedish company Essity.

The Nokia plc we all know mostly focuses on wired and wireless network technology.

Re: Ask HN: Which startups have the most interesting pivot stories?

#154

Post by phlipski »

rasjani wrote: post #148

Nokia was initially a single pulp mill around Tampere/Nokia region.

Nokia came to my mind as well. They made rubber products (galoshes, etc) before getting into telecom equipment in the late 70's and ultimately cell-phones in the 90's!

Re: Ask HN: Which startups have the most interesting pivot stories?

#155

Post by samizdis »

1024core wrote: post #95

HotMail (remember that?) started this way. The founders had an idea for a database hosted on the web(?), and pitched it to some VCs. They had been working on it as a side gig. Naturally, the VCs asked: did you do it on company time? Did you communicate via the company's email system? Nope, came the answer. We thought about that and built this email system to exchange messages while we worked on the product. And the V…

That's one of many stories told nicely in The New New Thing by Michael Lewis, which I really enjoyed reading.

Re: Ask HN: Which startups have the most interesting pivot stories?

#156

Post by WastingMyTime89 »

tristor wrote: post #39
ak_111 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually Nintendo started (140 years ago!) also as card trading company before becoming a console giant

It's even more interesting than that. Nintendo was created shortly after Japan made it no longer illegal to manufacturer or play card games (seen as something from the West to be banned). They started creating original card and board games, as well as card designs. They focused on playing cards, not necessarily trading cards, though. The entire business was able to exist or started due to government regulations and a…

> Studio Ghibli famously managed to prevent Disney from destroying it's films when released in the US by pulling a power play (they sent a samurai sword to Harvey Weinstein... yes that Harvey with a note that just said "No cuts.").

Well the power play is more that they put a clause in their distribution contract with Disney saying they had to agree to any cuts after the botched release of their previous films and simply said no to every cuts Weinstein asked for.

Apparently, Toshiro Suzuki personally offered the replica sword to Weinstein during a Miramax meeting while yelling "Mononoke Hime, NO CUT!" because Disney didn't respect the contract while distributing Kiki Delivery Service.

Re: Ask HN: Which startups have the most interesting pivot stories?

#158

Post by paxys »

obayesshelton wrote: post #48

Slack is a great story. Basically a tool they built in-house, the company were going bust and they realised that the "tool" had some value and out popped Slack https://review.firstround.com/From-0-to-1B-Slacks-Founder-Sh...

In fact the gaming company had already failed. They shut down the product and laid off employees, and offered to return the remaining money to their investors. The investors instead said keep it and try building something else.

It wasn't a random pivot either. Real-time multiplayer gaming and real-time group chat share a lot of the same characteristics. Discord has the exact same origin story.

Re: Ask HN: Which startups have the most interesting pivot stories?

#159

Post by dopidopHN »

madamelic wrote: post #151
forkLding wrote: post #124

Discord itself says this in their welcome messages but they used to be a game development studio that tried to develop an mobile MOBA game called Fates Forever back in 2014. However they found VOIP software to be pretty problematic and pivoted to develop VOIP software for gamers. Now they're a very popular chat client. https://discord.fandom.com/wiki/Discord#:~:text=Advertisemen... .

Between Discord and Slack, I think something SaaS companies need to consider is looking at play and how to genuinely integrate play / fun into how they develop product. Both of these huge companies spawned out of video games and I think we are going to see more spawn this way. I think play, especially at work, isn't discussed or considered enough and can form a strong core of a good product ("focus on the fun rather…

I vaguely remember Flickr early version being a turn by turn MMO ? Maybe MMORPG, not sure anymore. But to your point: a gaming venture.
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