One of the quintessential questions that comes up while doing a startup is whether to pivot or not. The next follow on question is when to pivot. Before delving to debate about this topic I tried to get an understanding of what a pivot is. Broadly speaking, from the information that I've gathered pivot can be defined as 'course correction'. So when to correct a course - A simple answer is perhaps testing business viability. The moment you figure out that your idea is unviable, it's time to pivot. This is easier said than done and the lean startup ideology of iterating fast is perhaps approach to figure out the 'how' of pivoting.
To understand pivoting better, one also needs to look at the ideas/goals. I always tend to think of the example of wright brothers. Their story of flight is just such a vast collection of pivots. However, they were really married and passionate about their goal. They did so many pivots to attain their goal, it's perhaps not worthwhile counting those.
So I've come across two types of pivoting:
Some entrepreneurs have a goal and they do multiple pivots/course corrections to reach that goal, based on the business viability.
Some entrepreneurs start out with a goal and change the goal itself, again based on business viability.
Not necessarily sure if there is any right or wrong approach between the two, or even if it's worthwhile classifying these as right or wrong ... but one thing is very clear. The moment there is widespread proof of business unviability of an idea, it's time to pivot, no matter how married you are to that idea or no matter how much time/money you've sunk in to that idea.
