**This** is how you pivot

Startups love to talk about 'Pivoting' -- those sudden changes in strategy, right angle turns that take you from obscurity to success.

"Burbn" pivoted from a location-checkin app to a stylized photo sharing app and became billion-dollar company, Instagram!

But to find the masters of pivoting, we need look no further than the monty python sketch, the piranha brothers. This is pivoting done *right*!

At the age of fifteen Doug and Dinsdale started attending the Ernest Pythagoras Primary School in Clerkenwell. When the Piranhas left school they were called up but were found by an Army Board to be too unstable even for National Service. Denied the opportunity to use their talents in the service of their country, they began to operate what they called 'The Operation'. They would select a victim and then threaten to beat him up if he paid the so-called protection money.

This must not have been a particularly succesful strategem, for we are about to learn that the Piranha Brothers chose to 'pivot'.

Four months later they started another operation which the called 'The Other Operation'. In this racket they selected another victim and threatened not to beat him up if he didn't pay them.

This strategy also met with limited success and another pivot was in order.

One month later they hit upon 'The Other Other Operation'. In this the victim was threatened that if he didn't pay them, they would beat him up.

This for the Piranha brothers was the turning point.

My book "Choose Your First Product" is available now.

It gives you 4 easy steps to find and validate a humble product idea.

Learn more.