6 lessons on how Amazon and Twitch pivoted to grow rapidly

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) pitched itself to small sellers as outsourcing their messy storage and shipping problems.

It started slow.

Then sellers who adopted it saw unit sales jump.

Their products came in Amazon boxes and shipped via Prime. Customers did not care who sold it to them, they cared that it looked and felt like Amazon.

The pitch to sellers changed from logistics to "more sales" and the program exploded.

Pivot Lessons:

1) Follow the data. The data showed a rapid sales increase.

2) Market what the customer values, not what you think you are about.

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Amazon Prime Video began as a paid video download service.

In contrast, Netflix had an all-you-can-eat DVD subscription, then added streamed video as an included bonus.

The pivot was to recognize the "included bonus" strategy and attach Prime Video to a huge user base, Prime customers.

Pivot Lessons:

3) Free, or appearing/feeling free, is always powerful.

4) Bundling with something already popular gets you exposure and familiarity. Bundle first, then raise the price of Prime later once people love the shows.

Amazon bought Twitch for $970M in stock, now worth ~$9B.

Twitch began as Justin TV, a site dedicated to live-streaming Justin Kan's life.

Since one guy's life was not enough to create a content company, pivot #1 was linear, opening the site to other users.

Pivot #2 is what mattered…