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Key Takeaways Instead of rebuilding or pivoting your product when it’s not selling, try selling it to different customers. Often, the product is fine — you’re just selling it to the wrong people.
Product-market fit is not a fixed equation. The same product can succeed wildly in one market and fail in another.
The next time you’re tempted to rebuild: Take your exact product, as it exists today, and pitch it to five completely different customer segments.
Everyone knows the pivot story. Startup builds Thing A, nobody wants it, so they build Thing B instead. Twitter started as a podcasting platform. Instagram was a check-in app called Burbn. The narrative is always the same: Throw out your code, start fresh, find product-market fit.
Here’s what nobody tells you: Sometimes the product is fine. You’re just selling it to the wrong people.
Related: Before You Pivot, Make Sure You’re Pitching to the Right Audience
The expensive mistake everyone makes
Consider what happened to Superhuman, the $30/month email client. Early on, they tried selling to everyone who hated email. Most people balked at the price. Instead of rebuilding their product or cutting prices, they focused exclusively on power users who email for 3+ hours daily. Same product, different customer, path to $30 million ARR.
Meanwhile, countless B2B startups waste millions rebuilding platforms because enterprise customers demand endless features. Often, these same “inadequate” products would thrive with mid-market companies that value simplicity over customization.
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