INFOGRAPHIC: 8 START-UP PIVOTS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

Start-Up Pivots That Changed the World
By KeriLynn Engel, Who Is Hosting This, 5 February 2015.

Today, the smartphone in your pocket is more powerful than the computers NASA used to put astronauts on the moon.

Modern technology is developing at an exponential rate - so fast that some predict that humans won’t even be able to keep up with some kind of artificial intelligence to help us.

With the kind of rapid technological development that’s going on every day, new start-ups have to be agile to keep competitive and stay in business.

Not a few start-ups fail because they don’t react fast enough, or focus on the wrong products or strategies from the beginning. Some entrepreneurs fall in love with their original ideas, and fail to pivot soon enough because they can’t admit it’s not working.

Successful entrepreneurs have to know when it’s time to change focus in order to stay in business. One of the most famous examples of successful pivoting is Steve Jobs. When he returned to Apple in 1997, the company has annual losses of over US$4 billion - today, it’s the second most valuable company in the world. That’s because Jobs knew that Apple had to start rapidly innovating in order to keep up with the changing technology. He saved Apple by drastically cutting their product line by 70%, focusing on only four main products.

But some start-ups go even further, not just refining their focus, but completely changing their entire strategies or industries.

Some of the examples in the chart below are hard to believe. Did you know that Nokia started off as a paper mill in Finland, or that Nintendo has actually been in business since the 1800s?

But the reason why these companies have survived and gone on to become hugely successful is because they adapted to changing times. The world would be a much different place if Nintendo never decided to start making game consoles, or if Twitter kept its focus on podcasts instead of microblogging.

Check out the details below - the humble beginnings of these now-famous companies might surprise you!

Infographic Sources:
1. What ‘Pivot’ Really Means
2. 14 Famous Business Pivots
3. Five Super Successful Tech Pivots
4. By the Numbers: 250+ Amazing Twitter Statistics
5. Twitter, Inc. (TWTR)
6. Twitter Sets IPO Price at $26 a Share
7. The Moment Ellen Passed Obama for Most Popular Tweet of All Time
8. What PayPal’s Rocky Beginnings Can Teach You About Start-up Success
9. PayPal Accidentally Credits Man $92 Quadrillion
10. Groupon Q1 2014 Public Fact Summary
11. Groupon: Annual Net Loss 2008-2013
12. Hewlett Packard Company Statistics
13. Timeline of Our History (Hewlett-Packard)
14. Wal-Mart Stores
15. New Type Of Computer Capable Of Calculating 640TBs Of Data In One Billionth Of A Second, Could Revolutionize Computing
16. HP Can Process 163,840TB of Data in 250 Nanoseconds
17. Global Market Share Held by Nokia Smartphones Q1 2007-Q2 2013
18. Nokia’s Lumia 520 Helps It Continue to Dominate Windows Phone Market: Report
19. Our Story (Nokia)
20. The Surprisingly Long History of Nintendo
21. Nintendo Company Statistics
22. Wii U Sales Reach 6.17 Million, as Nintendo Reveals Best-Selling Games to Date
23. Nintendo Announces Massive 45% Increase In 3DS Game Sales In 2013
24. Facebook Officially Closes Instagram Deal
25. Instagram Press
26. Top HashTags on Instagram
27. Pinterest Hits 10 Million U.S. Monthly Uniques Faster Than Any Standalone Site Ever -comScore
28. 5 Facts You Didn’t Know about Pinterest & Why Your Business Should Be on It!

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