TLDR: Atlassian & Trello are the perfect disruption case study
by Mitt Tarasowski (these highlights provided for you by Annotote)
“ Atlassian bought Trello for $425 million not because of its brand or its user base, but because Trello was a big threat to the company’s future.
“ Fog Creek launched Trello in 2011, and six years later sold it
“ By moving upmarket, Atlassian created a vacuum at lower price points into which competitors with disruptive technologies could enter. This is what Trello did. Trello created a cheaper, simpler, and smaller version of [Atlassian’s] Jira. It marketed its product to segments of customers, such as marketers, designers, and managers, which weren’t a focus for [the incumbent].
“ Jira became expensive. But its mainstream customers would accept fewer features for better pricing.
“ [CEO, Atlassian:] All companies fit into one of two buckets: either becoming a software company or being disrupted by one. Every industry is being fundamentally altered by software.
“ Companies that entered the market first were six times more likely to succeed than those that entered later.
#first mover advantage