4 ms·

Most of Esri's core C/C++ tech is fairly beastly. Especially the PE and geoprocessing bits. Spent a lot of time in the Esri space with enterprise customers, wor

by jschrf 4y ago

Most of Esri's core C/C++ tech is fairly beastly. Especially the PE and geoprocessing bits. Spent a lot of time in the Esri space with enterprise customers, worked for a deeply integrated platinum partner, spent time on the campus, blahblah. Beating Esri is a lofty goal. Aside from the aforementioned core tech, they are extremely entrenched and scaled in basically all horizontals, and have verticals for each, plus a big partner network. I think that in order to "beat" Esri, you'd have to beat them in all these different spaces, horizontally and vertically. There is some low hanging fruit there technically, IMHO, but the picture bigger is that it's going to take a ton of sales people over many years to actually disrupt. I think a long-term technical strategy for a scrappy startup to be looked at as an "Esri-beater" would be to start with ArcGIS Online and build inroads from there. There are weak points there in the business response to the licensing evolution, the tech, and the UX/DX. Just my 2c.

TimTheTinker 4y ago
Yep. I worked for Esri for 17 years. The lead PE dev is a math/geography double major (master's in one, Ph.D. in the other, I think?) and a great C/C++ developer to boot. I used to walk by his office and find large integrals on his whiteboard, or see him working on his latest project with Mathematica and his code editor.
- jschrf 4y ago
  Wow. 17 years is a long time. I would love to hear about your experiences some day. Esri is an interesting company to me. Always been slightly fascinated by it. One of the older software companies and still privately owned. I spent a good chunk of my early career both aligning and competing with it. My colleague and I ran into Jack once. Two random nobodies, visiting campus for obscure reasons, running into the main building to escape the random rain storm, and he opens the door to let us in. Knew exactly why we were there, and asked us what we thought of AWAB before stating something to the effect of: "I don't know what we've been doing all these years. People don't want to buy our stuff and then have to learn to write code, they just want to make maps." I'm convinced that's the key to the next world-eating web mapping company: stop forcing non-technical orgs to have to become technical orgs with technical staff just to solve simple spatial problems. It's orthogonal to their competencies and primary directives. Easier said than done of course. P.s. I know (of) who you are referring to btw, and he's somewhat of a legend, even outside Redlands.
  - TimTheTinker 4y ago
    For anyone interested, here's the sort of work Esri's PE team do on a regular basis: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/756bcae18d304a1eac140f19f4d5cb3d https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/756bcae18d304a1eac140f1...
girvo 4y ago
> ArcGIS Online ... weak points there Phew is that a bit of an understatement. Where I work would love a proper competitor to it, so I definitely agree with your assessment as to the approach. Would be amazing to see Felt (or someone) tackle it.

by jschrf 4y ago

TimTheTinker 4y ago

Yep. I worked for Esri for 17 years. The lead PE dev is a math/geography double major (master's in one, Ph.D. in the other, I think?) and a great C/C++ developer to boot. I used to walk by his office and find large integrals on his whiteboard, or see him working on his latest project with Mathematica and his code editor.

jschrf 4y ago
Wow. 17 years is a long time. I would love to hear about your experiences some day. Esri is an interesting company to me. Always been slightly fascinated by it. One of the older software companies and still privately owned. I spent a good chunk of my early career both aligning and competing with it. My colleague and I ran into Jack once. Two random nobodies, visiting campus for obscure reasons, running into the main building to escape the random rain storm, and he opens the door to let us in. Knew exactly why we were there, and asked us what we thought of AWAB before stating something to the effect of: "I don't know what we've been doing all these years. People don't want to buy our stuff and then have to learn to write code, they just want to make maps." I'm convinced that's the key to the next world-eating web mapping company: stop forcing non-technical orgs to have to become technical orgs with technical staff just to solve simple spatial problems. It's orthogonal to their competencies and primary directives. Easier said than done of course. P.s. I know (of) who you are referring to btw, and he's somewhat of a legend, even outside Redlands.
- TimTheTinker 4y ago
  For anyone interested, here's the sort of work Esri's PE team do on a regular basis: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/756bcae18d304a1eac140f19f4d5cb3d https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/756bcae18d304a1eac140f1...

girvo 4y ago

> ArcGIS Online ... weak points there Phew is that a bit of an understatement. Where I work would love a proper competitor to it, so I definitely agree with your assessment as to the approach. Would be amazing to see Felt (or someone) tackle it.