Does the wider start up economy still look positively on pivoting?

[peoplenotbots]

"Does the wider start up economy still look positively on pivoting?"

yeah that's the core question I guess.

A little background; my cofounder and I have a good start up but we're struggling to accelerate growth and raise capital because our current product is a simple Saas company.

In our frustration we started a side project. We started working on a "cynical ai pivot" and after 2 months of work its paid off, we have a couple customers of the "cynical ai pivot." Should we keep the same company and pivot the product or should we start a new company? Does the wider start up eco-system still celebrate pivoting or would it look better for us to start fully fresh.

-Long time reader first time poster.

[PaulHoule]

Whose opinion do you care about? It doesn't matter one bit what I think but what customers think, what employees think, what investors think are all crucial -- more important is how it plays out for the business.

I think a VC cares if you are going to hit it big or not, more than anything else. You can draw a tree where you: pivot or split and then various outcomes happen. Is the old business likely to be viable on its own? Do you have the resources to run two different businesses? What happens to customers dependent on the old business if you pivot?