In a presentation at the Accelerate Ottawa conference, 500 Startups Venture Partner Selcuk Atli introduced the Pivot Pyramid Framework. Pivot Pyramid is an intuitive and visual process that founders can rely on as they experiment with their startup in search for product market fit. It explains how companies can pivot in different areas of their company such as customers, problem, solution, technology and growth - and how these changes affect each other.

1. Selcuk Atli
selcuk@500startups.com

2. • Over 1500 Companies Invested In
• $240M Under Management
• 300+ companies started outside US
• 300+ companies with Women Founders
• Our Team of 110 people spans 12
countries and speak 20+ different
languages
Always #500strong

3. • Venture Partner, 500 Startups
• Co-founder, Manifest (acq. Rakuten)
• Co-founder, Boostable (YC W’14)
• Sell out rock star with upcoming EP
Twitter @selcukatli

4. Personal Pivot Story:
Manifest Commerce

7. Searching for
Product Market Fit

10. Many Small Experiments

11. Growth Hacking
Thesis >> Experiment >>Measure >> Scale

12. ???

13. Customers
Problem
Solution
Tech
Growth
Pivot Pyramid

14. Customers
Problem
Solution
Tech
Growth
e.g. Shopify

15. Customers
Problem
Solution
Tech
Growth
e.g. Criteo

16. Customers
Problem
Solution
Tech
Growth
e.g. Meerkat

17. Customers
Problem
Solution
Tech
Growth
e.g. Facebook

18. Customers
Problem
Solution
Tech
Growth
e.g. Airbnb

19. Key Takeaways

20. EXPERIMENT
LESS FREQUENTLY

21. Pivoting at the bottom
Changes everything above

22. Customers
Problem
Solution
Tech
Growth

23. Start with customers.
Not product, or technology.

24. Customers
Problem
Solution
Tech
Growth

25. You can’t have
more than one customer

26. Customers
Problem
Solution
Tech
Growth

27. Assume you will
dump your technology

28. Customers
Problem
Solution
Tech
Growth

29. All experiments
must target GROWTH

30. Customers
Problem
Solution
Tech
Growth

31. selcuk@500startups.com
#PivotPyramid

32. Growth Airbnb Airbnb started posting their listings on craigslist. This boosted visibility of
listings and drove more demand. It was short lived because Craigslist
shut it down.
Technology Facebook When its original programming language PHP started not keeping up
with its scale, Facebook built HipHop, a technology that translated PHP
into C++, a more scalable and efficient language.
Solution Meerkat Originally an app that lets you share live video with people you know,
Meerkat achieved breakout growth when it started live streaming video
on Twitter.
Problem Criteo Criteo started out as a recommendation engine for online retailers. They
pivoted to become one of the most successful companies that help
online retailers execute retargeting campaigns.
Customers Shopify Tobias Lütke started out by selling an elite line of snowboards online. He
quickly realized the tools to help build ecommerce sites were not good
enough. Today Shopify helps 100,000+ SMBs sell their products online.