No notification. No dashboard. It's a feeling that builds for weeks and by the time you're sure, you're six months late.
50+ ventures. I've made the call, watched others make it, watched others refuse. Refusing is always worse.
The signal isn't what you think
Revenue crashing. Users leaving. Runway shrinking. If those metrics are screaming at you, you're not pivoting. You're in triage.
The actual signal is quieter. You're in conversations explaining why the product is good instead of hearing customers tell you they need it. Feature requests would turn you into a completely different company. Your best people are bored.
Sunk cost
Hardest part isn't finding the new direction. It's letting go of the old one.
I've done it. Held onto things past their expiry because I'd poured months in. My nights. My weekends. My identity tangled up in the thing. The product isn't you. The venture isn't you. Until you get that separation, every signal filters through "but I already put so much into this."
Follow the pull
Don't pivot to something random. In every venture I've been part of, there was always something happening on the side. A use case nobody planned. A customer segment showing up uninvited. A feature everyone used that was never meant to be the main event.
That's the market telling you what it wants. Most people are too busy defending their original thesis to listen.
The timing
The pivot at month six saves you from the shutdown at month 18. Every time I've seen someone delay past the obvious moment, they ended up doing it anyway. Less money. Fewer people. More scar tissue.
Cut clean. The new thing deserves full attention, not whatever's left after you're done mourning the old one.