The Awesome Truth About Pivots

Startups who pivot often get hated on, misunderstood, and bashed by the press. Learn why our company, 140 Proof, pivoted multiple times, and why it was awesome.

1. JM3 THE AWESOME TRUTH ABOUT PIVOTS
2. JM3 john manoogian III @jm3 JM3.NET
3. JM3 FOUNDER: SOCIAL TECH COMPANY
4. JM3 WE HELP APP DEVELOPERS MAKE $
5. JM3 (the signal we leave as we move through the public internet)
6. JM3 SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY COMPANY
7. JM3 WORKING + LEARNING CRAFT
8. GENERAL ASSEMBLY JM3 TEACHING
9. JM3 NIGHT JOB @ GA
10. JM3 1 TERMINOLOGY * DISCLAIMER
11. JM3 Entrepreneur Founder 2
12. JM3 Small Businesses Startups 3
13. JM3 “Valley-style” startups 4
14. JM3 2010
15. JM3 South Park in San Francisco
16. JM3
17. JM3
18. JM3 CTR Click-through Rates THE DEBATE:
19. JM3 plus 1: social analytics app
20. JM3 YOU PLUS 1
21. JM3 OPEN, UBIQUITOUS, WILD WEST MESSAGING For public social data, we used Twitter.
22. JM3 plus 1 found you and sent you a link you clicked or you didn’t
23. JM3 CTR 17%
24. JM3 Normal: 0.1% – 0.01% A 17% CTR is unprecedented
25. JM3 opportunity to pivot
26. DECISION TIME FOR PLUS 1 JM3
27. JM3 customer discovery system to promote our one product: our app, +1. 4 we had created a
28. JM3 THE 10% CTR PIVOT (part 1: the “zoom out” business model pivot)
29. JM3 ruby, rails, ec2 everyone / long-tail social analytics ruby, rails, ec2 everyone / long-tail relevant ads… pivot!
30. JM3
31. JM3 Ads are problematic in the echo chamber mono-culture of the computing industry, #tasteless
32. JM3 Facebook: 84% REVENUE FROM ADS
33. JM3 Google: 97% REVENUE FROM ADS
34. JM3 Twitter: WHO KNOWS?!? (private co; guess 90%) REVENUE FROM ADS
35. JM3 All in denial! Ad Shame …
36. JM3 Debunking Pivots
37. JM3 widely misunderstood What it’s not: running out of money, then changing your business
38. JM3 The Big “Secret”: Successful Startups Pivot
39. JM3 Flickr from MMORPG to photo-sharing site 1
40. JM3 Heroku from in-browser code editing platform to “PAAS” 2
41. JM3 3 from location based checkin site to !ltered photos Instagram
42. JM3 Paypal from emailed payments from beaming money to Palm Pilots 4
43. JM3 PLUS 1 From
44. JM3 PIVOT #1, FROM SOCIAL ANALYTICS TO:
45. JM3 SOCIAL ADS FOR THE LONG-TAIL (WE THOUGHT…)
46. JM3 *REAL; WE ATE THESE.
47. 2000 CUSTOMERS JM3 (BUT THE ECONOMICS STANK)
48. JM3 who buys social ads?
49. JM3
50. JM3 who buys any ads?
51. JM3 you don’t buy social ads
52. JM3 ad companies buy ads.
53. JM3 WTF? Madison Avenue buys ads? But Madison Avenue MAKES ads. Right?!?!
54. JM3 Long Tail Madison Avenue The confusing economics of ads: Media (Holding) Companies buy most media, much like Eskimos buying ice
55. JM3 THE B2B PIVOT (from long-tail to media co’s on madison avenue)
56. JM3 2 PIVOTS
57. JM3 social analytics > ads
58. JM3 long-tail > madison ave.
59. JM3 4REALITY PIVOTS
60. JM3 self-serve > full-serve +
61. JM3 website > sales team +
62. JM3 Are we still pivoting?
63. JM3 2 PEOPLE
64. JM3 5 CITIES
65. JM3 2 $MILLION EXIT RATE
66. JM3
67. JM3 Know when to stop!
68. JM3 WE STAYED GROUNDED IN WHAT WE LEARNED LEARNING = EASIER THAN PREDICTING THE FUTURE
69. JM3 GOOD TEAMS SURVIVE STARTUPS
70. JM3 The Michigan Ma!a
71. JM3 Engineering + Design proud Michiganders 2
72. JM3 BUILD A PLACE TO ENERGIZE YOUR BEST CONNECTIONS
73. JM3 THANK U(P)!
74. JM3 For more insanity follow @jm3 • email jm3@140proof.com All photos Creative Commons licensed
75. JM3 THANK YOU
76. JM3 FIN