Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Ego and fear of admitting failure prevent founders from pivoting

Kass Lazerow · The 'messy' path to start-up success (with Kass & Mike Lazerow from SXSW) | Masters of Scale · Mar 21, 2025 · at 20:50

Buddy Media co-founder Kass Lazerow discusses why early-stage startup founders often resist pivoting when their initial business idea fails to achieve product-market fit.

0:00 / 0:16exact quote · 16.3s
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“Half the time with pivots, it's ego, right, that you don't do the pivot. So you have founders who sit there and go, well, wait, I raise money on the first idea. I can't go back to the board and tell them that this isn't working. I can't go back to my family and tell me that this isn't working.”

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Kass Lazerow Mar 21, 2025 ▶ 3:01 The 'messy' path to start-up success (with Kass & Mike Lazerow from SXSW) | Masters of Scale
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