Is pivoting and focus shifting betrayal of existing users?

Question

Do you think that when startup change direction that they are lying and betraying current customers? Startup gets users based on one story and then it pivots in totally another direction. This is great for startup, but what about the users that have signed up for the original product and not the pivoted one. Did startup actually used them?

necovek · Accepted Answer

If a startup goes under, is that betrayal to? To me, a failure is not betrayal.
A startup that needs to pivot to survive is probably equivalent to a failure of the startup, but survival for the team and the founders (a "company").
For a customer, the biggest problem is with all of the SaaS "products" which are ephemeral and require the parent company to keep it up or release it as free software. With desktop software, you could at least keep the last version.
But all things considered, if you are not going under, you should at least reimburse for whatever service was not rendered once you pivot.

verdverm · Answer

Are they paying users?Generally speaking, if the startup doesn't pivot, what's the future look like for the startup and users?

eimrine · Answer

> Do you think that when startup change direction that they are lying and betraying current customers?
From just these words and no more information I would like to say "no". But as someone who saw a bit of that, I notice that the way they do it is always falls to "yes, betrayal".
I mean that every service becames influenced by TikTok level of greed but no greed-powered service or proprietary piece of software has ever decided to remove unwanted/unjust functionality.