2 ms·
Allowing your business model be beholden to the whims of another company is setting yourself up for failure. Sure using an ecosystem built by another company ca
by rorykoehler 12y ago
Allowing your business model be beholden to the whims of another company is setting yourself up for failure. Sure using an ecosystem built by another company can be a great way to gain traction but by limiting yourself to this ecosystem you are also severely limiting your growth potential. Not only that but you will be easily and quickly dispersed with when you become successful enough. Having validated your idea the larger eco-system company will simply replace you with a clone that they own. Unless you have some serious in-house advantage (patents and people) that is not easily replicated then you will fail.
- vdaniuk 12y agoOr be acquired by the larger ecosystem company what would be the desired endgame for many startups. This alone may be worth all the risk of being squeezed out of the market. The example is obvious: Gnip vs Datasift.
- rorykoehler 12y agoAs I mentioned unless you have some compelling reason to be bought (people or patents) you don't stand a chance.
- jusben1369 12y agoThere's always risk but it varies greatly by platform. Twitter is by now notorious for doing this behavior. On the other hand Apple has a flourishing ecosystem of app developers. And FB has improved greatly moving from being Twitter like to closer to Apple. It's a function of maturity (young startups have growing pains on what they want to be and how they monetize) which can definitely create collateral damage. Mature companies like Apple don't experience the same degree of angsnt. It's no accident that Twitter, which has generally underperformed and disappointed more than its peers, is still screwing up and over its ecosystem far more than others.