5 ms·

Why can so few medium sized software companies succeed in the long term anymore? Why does everything need to consolidate to just a few companies.

toomuchtodo 2y ago
Because that’s the TAM without enterprise cross sell, which you only get once sucked up into the spaceship. Teams, GitHub, with Microsoft, Slack with Salesforce, Hashicorp with IBM, and so on. You either grind and love the grind, and make peace with your slice of the industry (Automattic [$7.5B value], for example) or you sell out and up when you get bored or tired.
- ThrowawayR2 2y ago
  I asked this elsewhere but didn't the founders show up on HN threads when Gitlab first launched and insist they had no plans to ever sell out?
  - metaphor 2y ago
    Sometimes life deals you a really bad hand[1]. [1] https://x.com/sytses/status/1797763994834600207 https://x.com/sytses/status/1797763994834600207
    - toomuchtodo 2y ago
      Absolutely terrible news to hear.
rapsey 2y ago
If they take VC money there are only two possible end goals. Go public or get bought. VC investment needs to be payed back.
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  Gitlab went public October 14th, 2021. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GTLB/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GTLB/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33208536 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33208536 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28863993 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28863993
- lagniappe 2y ago
  All investment must be recouped, even in a purchase. 8B is a proud sum and it'll be attempted to be extracted from the users first. This is the beginning of the end, as we have seen over and over again.
  - Jensson 2y ago
    So time to move all stuff you have on gitlab somewhere else, that way it will be easier when they change the terms.
    - preisschild 2y ago
      Many things in gitlab, like their many project planning features & CI+CD, dont really have self hosted alternatives...
      - NewJazz 2y ago
        You can self host gitlab. If they ever stop releasing open source code, someone will fork the last community edition.
candiddevmike 2y ago
Because GitLab couldn't be bothered to be a great, reliable, focused, self-hosted code development and CI/CD solution. They had to tack on half-baked copies of every dev tool in existence.
- pas 2y ago
  They are a great reliable pretty focused self-hostable dev/devops platform with a lot of trendy shit as extra. Most of which you get for free... they executed the open core model as well as possible (in this sector). What do you think they should have done better that would have helped them (their bottom line, growth, brand, sustainability, or some combination of these)?
blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
Megacorps are too powerful and have the ability to spend to get to low costs and high margins. They can also spend heavily and take losses for years in search of that efficient mature product. Then there’s all the blatantly anti competitive stuff like bundling things into existing contracts. Nothing will fix the consolidation unless we talk about this more and change the law. It’s not healthy for society to be controlled by a government and a handful of too big to fail companies.
cortesoft 2y ago
It tends to go in cycles, with phases where companies are merged into conglomerates and then phases where parts are spun off into separate companies. There are various reasons for both parts of the cycle.
alberth 2y ago
In tech, adoption follows a Power Law curve. If you’re not the top 1 (or 2) in what you do, your fighting for extremely small slices of market share.
- tourmalinetaco 2y ago
  It truly is a shame legal ramifications for monopolizations of major markets has fallen so far behind.
- wmf 2y ago
  Gitlab is #2, right?
  - pas 2y ago
    Yes. But the first is a trillion dollar gorilla. And lot of people still use AWS code whatever. There's probably not much money in just hosting code (especially considering that the market has been "commoditized to death" by ... GitLab itself, among others).
seydor 2y ago
in the beginning, the universe is a soup of particles with small density variations, over time things pull apart, giant stars form and consume more matter, giant galaxies, expanding away from each other more and more.
trueismywork 2y ago
Monopoly laws are not strong enough
- cholantesh 2y ago
  This is the real answer.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

toomuchtodo 2y ago

Because that’s the TAM without enterprise cross sell, which you only get once sucked up into the spaceship. Teams, GitHub, with Microsoft, Slack with Salesforce, Hashicorp with IBM, and so on. You either grind and love the grind, and make peace with your slice of the industry (Automattic [$7.5B value], for example) or you sell out and up when you get bored or tired.

ThrowawayR2 2y ago
I asked this elsewhere but didn't the founders show up on HN threads when Gitlab first launched and insist they had no plans to ever sell out?
- metaphor 2y ago
  Sometimes life deals you a really bad hand[1]. [1] https://x.com/sytses/status/1797763994834600207 https://x.com/sytses/status/1797763994834600207
  - toomuchtodo 2y ago
    Absolutely terrible news to hear.

rapsey 2y ago

If they take VC money there are only two possible end goals. Go public or get bought. VC investment needs to be payed back.

toomuchtodo 2y ago
Gitlab went public October 14th, 2021. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GTLB/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GTLB/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33208536 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33208536 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28863993 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28863993
lagniappe 2y ago
All investment must be recouped, even in a purchase. 8B is a proud sum and it'll be attempted to be extracted from the users first. This is the beginning of the end, as we have seen over and over again.
- Jensson 2y ago
  So time to move all stuff you have on gitlab somewhere else, that way it will be easier when they change the terms.
  - preisschild 2y ago
    Many things in gitlab, like their many project planning features & CI+CD, dont really have self hosted alternatives...
    - NewJazz 2y ago
      You can self host gitlab. If they ever stop releasing open source code, someone will fork the last community edition.

candiddevmike 2y ago

Because GitLab couldn't be bothered to be a great, reliable, focused, self-hosted code development and CI/CD solution. They had to tack on half-baked copies of every dev tool in existence.

pas 2y ago
They are a great reliable pretty focused self-hostable dev/devops platform with a lot of trendy shit as extra. Most of which you get for free... they executed the open core model as well as possible (in this sector). What do you think they should have done better that would have helped them (their bottom line, growth, brand, sustainability, or some combination of these)?

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago

Megacorps are too powerful and have the ability to spend to get to low costs and high margins. They can also spend heavily and take losses for years in search of that efficient mature product. Then there’s all the blatantly anti competitive stuff like bundling things into existing contracts. Nothing will fix the consolidation unless we talk about this more and change the law. It’s not healthy for society to be controlled by a government and a handful of too big to fail companies.

cortesoft 2y ago

It tends to go in cycles, with phases where companies are merged into conglomerates and then phases where parts are spun off into separate companies. There are various reasons for both parts of the cycle.

alberth 2y ago

In tech, adoption follows a Power Law curve. If you’re not the top 1 (or 2) in what you do, your fighting for extremely small slices of market share.

tourmalinetaco 2y ago
It truly is a shame legal ramifications for monopolizations of major markets has fallen so far behind.
wmf 2y ago
Gitlab is #2, right?
- pas 2y ago
  Yes. But the first is a trillion dollar gorilla. And lot of people still use AWS code whatever. There's probably not much money in just hosting code (especially considering that the market has been "commoditized to death" by ... GitLab itself, among others).

seydor 2y ago

in the beginning, the universe is a soup of particles with small density variations, over time things pull apart, giant stars form and consume more matter, giant galaxies, expanding away from each other more and more.

trueismywork 2y ago

Monopoly laws are not strong enough

cholantesh 2y ago
This is the real answer.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]