as
The Untold Story of Discord: "Pivots and F*ck Ups..."
@ a16z speedrun
04/29/25
Takeaways
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
The emotional toll of pivoting a startup is significant; it feels like a failure when you've invested so much into a product that ultimately doesn't work.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
When we launched our game 'Fates Forever' in 2014, it was a competitive multiplayer game on iPad, but it didn't succeed for various reasons, leading us to pivot.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
We initially planned to build a chat app for gaming, but we thought we could bootstrap it through a game. When the game failed, we realized we could launch the chat app directly instead.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
It became clear that 'Fates Forever' wasn't going to be big enough to bootstrap our network, so we decided to focus on launching Discord as a standalone chat app.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
After we fully committed to Discord, we figured out how to make it work within four weeks, demonstrating the importance of focus and conviction in a startup.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
I believe in being honest with my team during tough times; involving them in decisions helps get the best ideas and buy-in, even when half the team doubts the project.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
When we pivoted to Discord, half of our team thought it was a horrible idea, and one employee even quit through a Post-it note, showing the skepticism we faced.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
Laying off a third of the company was one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it was necessary to focus our efforts on Discord.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
Our first company value is to care deeply about our customers and their problems, which fosters a sense of ownership and commitment among the team.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
We realized that existing communication tools like TeamSpeak and Skype were not effectively serving the gaming market, which created an opportunity for Discord.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
The launch of Discord coincided with the rise of WebRTC technology, which allowed us to reduce friction and improve interoperability in our communication platform.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
I wouldn't have pivoted away from the game if we didn't run out of money, so I was looking for a pivot because I knew it could happen.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
When you get to around 20 people, if you haven't thought about company values, you probably want to sit down and write them down.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
It's really hard to change the culture of a company when you have 80 or 90 people because the culture is defined by how people behave when the founder is not in the room.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
We decided to be intentional about making Discord an amazing place to work for creative people, prioritizing a good environment over just pushing people hard.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
We didn't take the approach of getting a billion users and figuring out how to make money later; we focused on how to monetize if we could get to 100 million monthly active users.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
From the beginning, our plan was to directly sell utility and expression, and monetize game distribution somehow.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
We realized pretty quickly that even though we focused on specific games, people were using Discord for all kinds of multiplayer gaming.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
We reached out to mods on gaming subreddits, suggesting they replace IRC links with Discord links because we believed Discord would be better for their users.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
We saw Twitch streamers using Discord, which helped it spread quickly into different aspects of their lives.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
We built Discord with customization capabilities, allowing users to connect to external data sources, which turned out to be beneficial for various applications.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
AI is an enabling technology that helps us deliver value to people more effectively, focusing on how it can enhance communication and interaction.
JC
Jason Citron
04/29/25
@ a16z speedrun
We are using AI across the company, with every customer service ticket seen by AI first, which has improved response times and accuracy.