Pivoting... a Key Sucess Factor for Startups, but When and Why ?

There are several great posts about pivoting, for example:

• Mark Suster (@msuster) a VC and ex entrepreneur from from GRP Partners: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/12/17/what-makes-an-entrepreneur-310-ability-to-pivot/
• Chris Dixon (@cdixon), CEO of Hunch.com http://cdixon.org/2010/06/14/pivoting

In order to pivot you need to let go of the old and focus on the new, no one knows if the new is better then the old, and its hard making a decision that may turn bad on you...read more and hear a gr8 movie...
The book 'Innovator's dilemma' (by Clayton Christensen ) talks about this issue of pivoting in companies and why it most of the time fail... mostly since they are focused on there current business and current customers and can't pivot without taking a huge risk... this is on of the reasons why most startups do things that big companies can do in a sec, but don't.
A good advice to follow is by Steve Blank the man behind the book 'The four steps to the epiphany' who talks about customer development plan: First find a repeatable and scalable businesses model and only then build the company around it and grow...
Check Steve's keynote at startup lessons learn conference here:

Why Accountants Don't Run Startups