If you haven’t seen our recent tweets you may not have read about Grasshopper Group. Grasshopper Group is the recently launched endeavor from the company that brought you Chargify and we wanted to share the great news about it.

What is Grasshopper Group?

Grasshopper Group is the parent company of Chargify, Grasshopper, Spreadable and everything else we do in the future. Grasshopper Group will be where we focus our entrepreneurial efforts, like National Entrepreneurs’ Day.  This will allow of our companies & products to evolve, improve and be the best in their respective industries.

How will this effect Chargify?

Since Chargify was already technically “owned” by Grasshopper Group, you will not notice any changes.

Venture capitalist Paul Graham expressed an under-appreciated nugget of wisdom in his article on mistakes that kill startups.  Unlike “winning an Olympic gold medal, where the problem is well defined”, building a successful company is actually “more like science, where you need to follow the trail wherever it leads.”

Therefore, Graham concludes that the worst person to run a startup is someone who “has some great idea they know everyone is going to love, and that’s what they’re going to build, no matter what.” But while plenty has been written about successful startups in general, little has been said about companies that thrived by changing their strategies instead of clinging to those they started with.

Below, Chargify examines six companies whose flexibility took them to new heights.

PayPal

PayPal, believe it or not, was not founded to be the online payment service that it is today. In her book Founders at Work, Jessica Livingston interviews PayPal founder Max Levchin. During the interview, Levchin reveals that PayPal was originally envisioned as a cryptography company, and then later as a means of transmitting money via PDAs. Only after several years of trial and error (and overcoming user fraud that almost destroyed the company) did PayPal find its sweet spot as the default online payment system of millions.

Plan on attending SWSW (South by SouthWest) 2010 in Austin, TX from March 12th - 16th? Or are you already at SXSW enjoying Austin? If so, you are in luck because the Chargify team is there too and will be through the 16th.

Curious to meet the team behind the company? Or maybe you just want to get your hands on some Chargify schwag?

Either way keep an eye out for us. if you need a reference as to who we are check out our About Us page and put a face with the names.

We have a few surprises up our sleeves as well so be sure to keep tabs on us on Twitter @chargify.

Check out the latest post from Grasshopper:

“A piece of advice to web entrepreneurs just getting started: rather than becoming consumed with starting the next Google or Facebook, focus on creating a remarkable company with a niche target market that solves a problem that you yourself have had. Here are four and a half great videos from six entrepreneurs to help you focus, get inspired, and launch a successful startup.”

See videos from David Heinemeier Hannson of 37signals, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin and more.

Check out all of the videos from “4.5 Videos Every Web Entrepreneur Needs to Watch”