Why Trello failed to build a $1B business
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Why Trello failed to build a $1B business
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Re: Why Trello failed to build a $1B business
#2From an internal rate of return standpoint, Trello may have come pretty close to the value of a $1billion company to its founders and employees because it only took one round of funding - $10 million for non-controlling interest [1] - and existed at $450 million. So the pool of money for common stockholders was $225 million or more.
Re: Why Trello failed to build a $1B business
#3From an internal rate of return standpoint, Trello may have come pretty close to the value of a $1billion company to its founders and employees because it only took one round of funding - $10 million for non-controlling interest [1] - and existed at $450 million. So the pool of money for common stockholders was $225 million or more. [1]: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2014/07/24/trello-inc/
Yeah the title of the article is misleading, it should have highlighted the strategy part of growing a business (as in the article) instead of the focus on the valuation.
We are probably missing the intention of the founders when they started.
Anyone should be happy with such an income, no question about that I think.
Re: Why Trello failed to build a $1B business
#4>It looked a lot like a whiteboard with sticky notes translated into a web browser and an iPhone App.
That's pretty much it. It was an insanely easy idea to copy, you can already do it with sticky notes if you work in an office. I don't really think you can improve the service beyond that; It's a note tracker, it tracks notes.
Re: Why Trello failed to build a $1B business
#5> From the article: “We see Trello as a feature, not a product.”
That's pretty much the answer. In this case it wasn't a horizontal/vertical issue, simply that the feature was easily added by other, more comprehensive platforms.
Re: Why Trello failed to build a $1B business
#6>It looked a lot like a whiteboard with sticky notes translated into a web browser and an iPhone App. That's pretty much it. It was an insanely easy idea to copy, you can already do it with sticky notes if you work in an office. I don't really think you can improve the service beyond that; It's a note tracker, it tracks notes.
Yeah and everyone and their brother had built various versions of that same concept both before and after they launched theirs. But clearly they got the simple and effective part right given what happened with their userbase.
Re: Why Trello failed to build a $1B business
#7It's pretty insane to use the word "fail" in the same sentence with Trello. Is "Why Amazon failed to build a 10 trillion dollar business" next?
Re: Why Trello failed to build a $1B business
#8>It looked a lot like a whiteboard with sticky notes translated into a web browser and an iPhone App. That's pretty much it. It was an insanely easy idea to copy, you can already do it with sticky notes if you work in an office. I don't really think you can improve the service beyond that; It's a note tracker, it tracks notes.
Yeah and everyone and their brother had built various versions of that same concept both before and after they launched theirs. But clearly they got the simple and effective part right given what happened with their userbase.
I feel that Joel was a pretty important factor in why it got so much adoption. This wasn't exactly a nobody pitching their cool new project.
Re: Why Trello failed to build a $1B business
#9>It looked a lot like a whiteboard with sticky notes translated into a web browser and an iPhone App. That's pretty much it. It was an insanely easy idea to copy, you can already do it with sticky notes if you work in an office. I don't really think you can improve the service beyond that; It's a note tracker, it tracks notes.
Well, one idea would be to track the state of the thing it represents. Fix a bug, move it to done. But afaict, they prefer not imposing a particular workflow on anyone. As a result, moving a card to 'Done' doesn't affect the due date coloring. So you have to move the card and click a button.
Re: Why Trello failed to build a $1B business
#10>It looked a lot like a whiteboard with sticky notes translated into a web browser and an iPhone App. That's pretty much it. It was an insanely easy idea to copy, you can already do it with sticky notes if you work in an office. I don't really think you can improve the service beyond that; It's a note tracker, it tracks notes.
I've said this on HN before. But this is what I love about Trello - they resisted the urge to do more than just reproduce the sticky note/whiteboard experience digitally. I've used other products that could be described as "copies" that tried to "enhance" that experience, even slightly, with additional functionality that ended up detracting from the core product. It seems like that was a harder balance to hit than it might look.