YC Founders Pivot 5 Times Before $1M ARR Social App
These YC founders pivoted 5 times before building a social app that hit 300K users and $1M ARR in 6 months.
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YC Founders Pivot 5 Times Before $1M ARR Social App
These YC Founders Pivoted 5 Times Before Building A Social App That Nabbed 300K Users And Over $1M ARR In 6 Months A few months ago, two YC-backed founders found themselves stuck in what they called “pivot hell.” They had cycled through more than 10 ideas, watching the clock on their seed money tick down. Yet, against the odds, these YC founders pivoted 5 times before building a social app that nabbed 300K users and over $1M ARR in just 6 months. Image Credits:Candle Their story is one of grit, timing, and a little bit of viral luck. From Failed Ideas To Y Combinator Backing The startup, now known as Candle , was founded by Alex Ruber , a former Apple engineer, and Parth Chopra , who had previously worked at Asana and Twitter. Before Candle, they built Encore , a conversational AI shopping tool. That product secured them a spot in Y Combinator’s Fall 2024 batch and helped raise $2 million. But as Ruber recalls, the economics didn’t work. “The secondhand shopping space is a tough market to begin w…
