These YC founders pivoted 5 times before building a social app that nabbed 300K users and over $1M ARR in 6 months | TechCrunch

"A couple of months ago, the founders behind YC-backed social app Candle were in "pivot hell," cycling through more than a dozen ideas after joining Y Combinator's Fall 2024 batch, while the clock on their seed money ticked down. Alex Ruber, previously an engineer at Apple, and Parth Chopra, formerly an engineer at Asana and Twitter, had built multiple projects together including Encore, a conversational AI shopping tool that got them into YC and with which they raised $2 million."

"What followed were months of rapid experiments between last December and April, with pivots around ideas in areas like fashion and sports, none of which stuck. "We tried more than 10 different ideas in the span of four or five months," Ruber said. The pressure began to strain their own relationships with friends and partners, a familiar story for many early-stage founders. Ironically, that tension sparked the idea that would finally click."

"The first version was simple: a swipeable deck of questions designed to spark conversations with their partners. Then an intern, now marketing lead at the startup, shared a TikTok about the app that went viral, unexpectedly gaining traction in Europe. Downloads surged, feedback poured in, and the team leaned into the momentum. That early prototype has since evolved into Candle, a lightweight, gamified app that helps couples and close friends stay connected."

Founders Alex Ruber and Parth Chopra moved from a struggling conversational secondhand-shopping product to rapid experimentation across more than ten ideas while in Y Combinator. Unit economics on their prior product failed, prompting a sequence of pivots that strained personal relationships and partnerships. A simple prototype — a swipeable deck of conversation prompts — gained unexpected traction after a viral TikTok from an intern-turned-marketing lead. The team leaned into user feedback and evolved the prototype into Candle, a lightweight, gamified app focused on couples and close friends, achieving significant early user growth and engagement metrics.

Read at TechCrunch