The Pivot No One Talks About
Startups pivot all the time. But there’s one pivot no one talks about. It’s when you the founder have to pivot too. And it's often the harder one.
You were a builder; now you have to be a salesman.
You were a one-man army; now you have to build an army.
You were building a product; now you have to build a brand.
You knew every customer personally; now you have to trust the data.
You worked only on exciting things; now you have to work on boring things too.
In the life of every successful startup, two things are never final: The product finding its market, and the founder finding their role.
The hardest pivot isn't changing what you build as a founder. It's changing who you are.
AI is changing how companies build and scale. But most pitch decks haven’t caught up.
Karthik Chakkarapani, CIO of Zuora, has heard plenty of startup pitches but only a few stand out. He shares why most pitches fall flat, how to fix them, and how to present both the founder and the company in a way that drives real interest.
We unpack what should go into your 30-second elevator pitch, why “Time to Value” needs its own slide, and how to bring up AI without sounding like everyone else.
Building a startup is different in a post-UI world, where users don’t click through screens but simply prompt systems to act. We discuss what it takes to build in a world of API-driven AI agents, along with real lessons on what most founders get wrong about working with large companies.
If you're building SaaS in 2025, this conversation is for you.
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Investor I Advisor | Sales Leader | Sales Transformation Executive | GTM Strategy | Channels/Pathways to Market Expert | APJ Growth | Student of AI/ML
3wPivoting from the mindset of “In Power” to “Empower”. As the startup grows, and as the team grows, this pivot becomes very crtical for success!