From what I’ve seen working alongside early-stage founders:
Tech startups don’t fail because the tech isn’t feasible. They fail because they wait too long to admit what’s not working anymore in the market or with their business model.
Many launch with a big vision. Solid founding team. Early wins. First wave of users.
Then two or three in… the stall hits.
You’re not bleeding out. But you’re not growing significantly either anymore. CAC creeps up. Projections get missed. Numbers dip gradually. You try to fix it, but you don’t question the fundamentals of your business model.
Because you have already invested so much and technically, you’re still alive, right?
THAT’s where the damage happens.
I’ve been in that seat – with my former companies.
At one point, we were forced to confront what we’d been avoiding all along. “The current strategy isn’t working anymore. We need to pivot.”
What makes the move scary, is lack of certainty.
As a result, they trial-and-error their way through the storm. Or stay frozen in what used to work. Burning time, cash, and morale in the process.
I built Pivotal to break this cycle. A pivot should not be a panic move. It should be a clear and strategic decision. This is where the 𝗣𝗶𝘃𝗼𝘁 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 comes in.
1) Pivotal is born out of my scars and studying 500+ other companies that ran into growth walls.
2) It pulls from proven business concepts (yes, Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder is baked in — but this goes deeper).
3) It guides founders to lead their team OUT of the plateau, systematically. Not drag them through another quarter of trial and error or “wait and see.”
We used this approach to
– reposition my first company synesix solutions AG from a service company to a fully fledged operator.
– to transform my second baby careware AG from a trading company into a B2B2C e-commerce player.
– and to turn Allthings from a tenant management pioneer into the largest orchestration and integration platform in Real Estate in the DACH space.
𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 – 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 – 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆’𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺, 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀.
Most importantly, yours.
P.S. If you’re sitting in that “not failing but definitely not working” season, shoot me a DM. Together, we’ll figure out exactly what’s stalling your growth + what move makes sense next.