How Do Software Startups Pivot? Empirical Results from a Multiple Case Study

TL;DR

This paper investigates how software startups decide to pivot or persevere, analyzing four case studies to identify pivot types and triggers, revealing diverse pivot strategies influenced by customer feedback and market conditions.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into the pivoting processes of software startups, highlighting different pivot types and their triggering factors during product development.

Findings

Startups exhibit various pivot types related to business and technology.

Negative customer feedback is a common trigger for pivots.

Different startups follow distinct pivot strategies during development.

Abstract

In order to handle intense time pressure and survive in dynamic market, software startups have to make crucial decisions constantly on whether to change directions or stay on chosen courses, or in the terms of Lean Startup, to pivot or to persevere. The existing research and knowledge on software startup pivots are very limited. In this study, we focused on understanding the pivoting processes of software startups, and identified the triggering factors and pivot types. To achieve this, we employed a multiple case study approach, and analyzed the data obtained from four software startups. The initial findings show that different software startups make different types of pivots related to business and technology during their product development life cycle. The pivots are triggered by various factors including negative customer feedback.