Even great startups sometimes need to pivot (feat. Francisco Cornejo of Theo) | E2214
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 24 November 2025
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Register here for Founder University Japan’s Kickoff 👉🏻 https://luma.com/cm0x90mk
Today’s show:
The team from Familify had released a well-reviewed storytelling app for kids and parents… but it just wasn’t growing!
Then they noticed that Bible stories and faith-based content was particularly popular. So they decided released a brand new app, Theo, just for these sorts of lessons and stories. And the new product overtook Storybook in just a few weeks!
It’s a vital lesson for founders… Even if you succeed, you may be able to succeed EVEN MORE. Remain flexible and open to strong new ideas (especially if, like Francisco, your wife suggests them!)
PLUS we’re chatting with Collin from En Vérité about how AI can make do diligence much less painful for investors AND checking out our latest Gamma Pitch Deck competitor. Find out why Jason says Jake Triton from Pitch Prfct might just be closing in on Product Market Fit.
Timestamps:
(5:20) How Storybook, then Theo was motivated by a children’s mental health crisis
(5:46) Despite great reviews, Storybook wasn’t growing! Here’s what they did.
(7:13) The Power of Experiments: Theo overtook Storybook in popularity in JUST WEEKS
(10:04) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST
(11:04) Digging in to the decision to flip from all stories to Bible stories
(12:34) The difference in how users perceive prayer vs. meditation
(14:06) Will they make different Theos for different denominations of Christianity? Other faiths?
(14:55) Jason makes the case for the Theo app and its team
(19:59) Sentry - New users get 3 months free of the Business plan (covers 150k errors). Go to http://sentry.io/twist and use code TWIST
(21:50) Key lessons for founders from Francisco’s pitch today
(26:51) Collin Sebastian from En Vérité joins the show to tell us how En Vérité helps prepare founders for the due diligence process
(30:00) Enterpret: Enterpret turns feedback noise into Customer Intelligence, so your team knows exactly what to fix and build next. Head to Enterpret.com/twist to book a demo and see it in action.
(31:03) Jason recalls some diligence horror stories from his past
(32:14) Where En Vérité gets their data and how they use it
(36:39) What Collin learned from his time at SoftBank
(39:44) The Gamma Pitch Deck Competition returns with Jake Triton from PitchPrfct [https://x.com/JakeTriton] @pitchprfctsms
(42:29) Why Jason thinks Jake is closing in on Product Market Fit
(45:51)How PitchPrfct plans to have AI help build your campaign and workflow
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Thank you to our partners:
(10:04) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST
(19:59) Sentry - New users get 3 months free of the Business plan (covers 150k errors). Go to http://sentry.io/twist and use code TWIST
(30:00) Enterpret: Enterpret turns feedback noise into Customer Intelligence, so your team knows exactly what to fix and build next. Head to Enterpret.com/twist to book a demo and see it in action.
Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The lesson here is fairly obvious. Running experiments consistently can lead to a founder learning |
| 0:07.6 | about a new opportunity. This is Ray Kroc at 55 years old as a traveling salesman. I tell |
| 0:13.4 | that story because it's never too late. Where did the idea to run this experiment come from? |
| 0:19.0 | Can you remember the moment in time? Was it somebody on the team? Was it you? Who had this idea to run this experiment come from. Can you remember the moment in time? Was it somebody on the team? |
| 0:21.8 | Was it you? Who had this idea to include prayer? I guess there was always the relationship between |
| 0:28.8 | prayer and sleep. Sleep is universal and prayer was present in most of our family's routines. |
| 0:36.2 | We are as founders also deeply spiritual, I would say |
| 0:39.8 | deeply Christian. And we thought, yes, this is something we would use. Why don't we run this |
| 0:45.5 | experiment? Let's launch some prayer and Bible stories on a storybook. We launched the Bible stories |
| 0:49.7 | like in 2024. But the data, the insight really came about by the end of 2024 when we realized, hey, |
| 0:57.5 | something interesting is happening with people who consume these stories. |
| 1:01.6 | This week in startups is brought to you by Interpret. |
| 1:05.1 | Interpret turns feedback noise into customer intelligence, so your team knows exactly what |
| 1:10.1 | to fix and build next. |
| 1:11.8 | Head to interpret.com slash twist to book a demo and see it in action. |
| 1:16.6 | Century. |
| 1:17.4 | Your team should be focused on shipping features, not chasing down bugs. |
| 1:21.6 | New users get three months free of the business plan, which covers 150,000 errors. |
| 1:27.2 | Go to century.io slash twist and use the code, |
| 1:30.5 | Twist. And Squarespace. Turn your idea into a beautiful website. Go to Squarespace.com slash twist for a free |
| 1:38.6 | trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code twist to save 10% off your first purchase of a |
| 1:44.0 | website or domain. |
... |
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