How Multi Pivoted and Rebranded Completely in Public [Pivot Case Study]

Virtual office → Multiplayer collaborative coding

In the ever-evolving landscape of remote work tools, Multi (formerly Remotion) stands out as a prime example of startup agility. Founded by Charley Ho and Alexander Embiricos in 2019, the company's journey from a pre-pandemic virtual office solution to a cutting-edge multiplayer collaboration platform for macOS is a testament to the power of listening to users and pivoting with purpose.

Initially launched to facilitate remote team culture through quick video chats, Remotion rode the wave of pandemic-induced remote work. However, as user churn increased and growth plateaued, the founders recognized the need for a dramatic shift. Through meticulous customer research and public iteration, they uncovered a crucial insight: engineering teams were using their app not for socializing, but for getting work done.

This case study explores how Multi transformed its product vision, rebranded, and developed a revolutionary screen-sharing experience that makes any app or desktop OS multiplayer. We'll delve into the challenges they faced, the strategies they employed to validate their new direction, and the early signs of success in their bold pivot.

1. Original premise?

What problem was the team solving? For who? What was the intended solution?

When co-founders Charley Ho and Alexander Embiricos decided to build together in 2019, most people in the tech industry advised them against it. Why? Because the founders lived in different cities, and founding teams based in different cities never worked (yes, that’s what most of us thought pre-pandemic). After hearing all this advice about how hard it was to collaborate remotely, Ho and Embiricos decided to build a startup around exactly that — enabling teams to collaborate remotely while still building culture. 

They started building this before COVID-19 brought the world grinding to a halt. The first version of the product was a tool enabling quick video chats between team members. In 2020, when pandemic-induced “zoom fatigue” set in, the startup pivoted to a virtual office tool that supported remote work by facilitating co-working, casual conversations, and shared music.

2. Warning Signs

What made them think they needed to pivot from their original premise?

Ho and Embiricos remote-first tool was accelerated by the pandemic. However, just a few months after the initial spike, the startup’s user churn increased and growth flattened. They tried everything to get onboard more teams onto the app, but it seemed like people just didn’t want Remotion anymore.

Embiricos pin-pointed a few obvious reasons for this market-level shift: (i) Slack Huddles fulfilled part of their use-case; (ii) continuing video fatigue at the workplace (globally, calls fell by two-third after the initial pandemic uptick); (iii) many teams using the app returned to physical office spaces.

3. Time to Pivot

How long after they started the company did they think about pivoting?

The co-founders thought about pivoting around 2 years after launching their virtual office tool.  

4. Initial Funding / Team

Had the company raised money before their pivot? How much? How big was the team?

Yes, the startup had raised a total of $13 million across two funding rounds — a Series A led by Greylock and a seed round led by First Round.

5. New Opportunity

What were the key insights that drove their pivot?

The co-founders decided to build in public as they pivoted. Embiricos started with an honest LinkedIn post about why Remotion needed to change direction. The team needed to focus on building a specific product for a specific customer. He shared the ways in which the team was thinking about the pivot:

• Hypothesizing in the direction of larger pivots by using April Dunford’s “Reverse Positioning” — starting with what makes the product valuable and then working up to what matters and for whom.
• Figuring out if they had stronger PMF in a specific segment of their user base using the Superhuman / Sean Ellis PMF survey.
• Backing the PMF survey up with usage data.
• Talking to customers!

The startup meticulously went through each step before landing on a clear insight — engineering teams liked to use the app to get work done (as opposed to socializing, which is what the startup was initially leaning toward). Their new focus became technical teams (particularly tech leads) using Remotion to build together.

Embiricos continued sharing their pivot journey in public. They relentlessly course-corrected based on the feedback they got from existing and potential users. The startup’s next deep insight was that while Remotion couldn’t convince users to collaborate more, users wanted to use it to get more out of the collaborative calls they were already doing. Especially, calls that involved pairing over screen shared design, docs, or code. The problem they identified was that screen sharing was very high-friction. The startup’s vision became a reimagined screen share experience for building things together. In Embiricos’ words on LinkedIn: 

“As of last week, in Remotion, shared content gets its own window and a dedicated dock icon like an app. For example if someone shares Xcode, it looks as if their Xcode just opened on your computer. It feels like you can interact with it, because you can.

Giving shared apps their own windows really shines when you’re working across a couple apps at the same time. For instance, you might be discussing a pull request in GitHub while your partner is making adjustments in Xcode: You can both share what you’re looking at, and you can both arrange those windows as you’d like. You can even use Command+Tab to go between them.

It’s like putting two laptops side by side—or maybe better.”

They changed their name from Remotion to Multi to better suit their use-case and doubled down on their new insights.

6. Pivot Validation

How did they validate those insights?

As the founders built in public, they also talked to current and potential users — incorporating feedback they got and iterating on their new vision. For example, his posts often ended like this:

“If these ideas resonate and you want to help us get the product or its launch right, let me know. Looking for all the feedback I can get 🙏”

Embiricos announced the latest form of the pivot in August 2023:

“Multi: Multiplayer Collaboration for macOS

Our approach

- Make anything multiplayer—be it a tab, app, or desktop OS

- Encourage spending time actively building together, and discourage passive meetings

- Make teamwork effortless, but by helping individuals first.”

7. Length of Pivot

How long did it take to get clear signal the pivot was working?

The pivot process took the better part of a year. It started with promising signs (nearly 4k signups in the first 7 days), but ultimately Multi announced it was acquired about a year later.

8. Pivot Funding

Did they raise money during or after their pivot?

The startup did not raise more money — their last round was a Series A closed in October, 2020.

9. Pivot Outcomes

What happened after the pivot? Did they ever get to product market fit? Where is the company today?

After pivoting from Remotion to Multi, the company developed real-time collaborative tools for software development. While it seems unlikely that they achieved full product-market fit, Multi's technology and team attracted attention from major players in the AI industry.

On June 24, 2024, OpenAI acquired Multi in an "acquihire" deal. The five-person team, including co-founder Alexander Embiricos, joined OpenAI's ChatGPT desktop team. As part of the acquisition, Multi's platform was shut down on July 24, 2024.

The team's focus at OpenAI will be on integrating AI into collaborative workflows, aligning with OpenAI's strategy to enhance human-AI interaction and remote collaboration capabilities.

10. Lessons Learned

What are 2-3 key takeaways from their pivot experience?

1. Prioritize the first-mile experience for new users. It’s easy to fall into the trap of building an idealized user experience at the expense of the first-mile experience i.e. what a new user can do with your product on their first try. You need to make new users care. Spend your time and effort on building out your central differentiating idea and keep everything else default.
2. PMF is based on product concept. PMF isn’t won through the features you build into the product, it’s about what your product is. Simply building newer (or even better features) won’t help you get there. The crux of your product needs to be strong and solve a deep seated need for your customer.