Is Re-Branding the New Pivot?

I was at an entrepreneurs event last night where three separate people told me they were in the process of rebranding their already-launched startup.

One told me that since they’ve started using their new name in conversations, they’ve been making more deals and are getting better reactions from investors.

Nobody at the entire event mentioned pivoting once.

Has the pivot gone out of fashion? Has rebranding taken its place?

Thinking about it from a high-level perspective, a pivot suggests that you’re trying something entirely new, because let’s face it, what you’ve been doing isn’t working. A re-brand on the other hand suggests that you’re discovering what it is you’re good at, digging deeper along a certain vein, and in the process finding that the old name no longer fits so well.

I guess if people are re-branding instead of pivoting these days, that’s a good thing – suggests they’re maybe getting better at honing in on the good stuff in their idea, not having to re-roll the dice quite so much.

Not sure if that was just random synchronicity or a real pattern, but it’s interesting to note.

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