4 ms·
The analytics space did not work out the way I expected. I remember the dark ages of google analytics where you couldn't granularly segment your data. Then cam
by enahs-sf 5y ago
The analytics space did not work out the way I expected. I remember the dark ages of google analytics where you couldn't granularly segment your data.
Then came Mixpanel with a product that worked well but had a critical flaw around tying back user profile data into event segmentation. That spawned off a number of competitors: amplitude, heap, etc.
Also the rollup product, Segment which basically put the fear of god in these companies' sales teams because switching costs were essentially negligible.
where Mixpanel began as the clear market leader, amplitude caught up. So began a race to the bottom for lowering the cost per event tracked as well as an arms race of features. Oddly enough, all of these companies are YC backed, and yet in competition with one another.
This space in general has changed the way we build products to be more rigorous and analytical about the features we create and meticulous in our execution with respect to our users. Congrats to the Amplitude team on their work up to this point and their execution that has lead to this IPO.
- sh_001_z 5y agoRace to the bottom? Amplitude charges 30k per year...
- enahs-sf 5y agoAt one point our mixpanel bill was more than our AWS one. No one said enlightenment would be cheap. Amplitude went after Mixpanel on pricing first. They basically offered 10M events free for startups.
- indigochill 5y ago> Oddly enough, all of these companies are YC backed, and yet in competition with one another. Doesn't seem that strange to me. If you're spending 1x on backing each startup, you're expecting most of them will fail and one of them will return 50x. It's mostly just a numbers game.
- debarshri 5y agoIt is unfair from a startup perspective because you are also backing the competitor. Question becomes whom do you prioritize? How do you prioritize help?
- lastofthemojito 5y agoFeels like a micro version of Matt Levine's Stock Market Inc model of competitors who share the same owners and thus occasionally are directed to work towards a common good. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-02-24/money-stuff-the-vaccine-is-not-a-competition https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-02-24/money-...
- ngokevin 5y agoThere's no prioritization for help. It's not like YC is running the businesses or anything is zero-sum because they both have the same and equal resources and access for guidance.
- soneca 5y agoI think it’s KissMetrics that began as clear market leader, before losing to Mixpanel. KissMetrics had great content marketing, its blog was educating a generation of startup founders on how to use analytics. There is a post-mortem from the founder somewhere explaining how they lost that initial advantage. IIRC, basically worse vision/execution than Mixpanel (as they were basically the same product).