🤖 Bottoms-up SaaS hits a growth wall — only the scaled platforms escape

Chamath tech w=0.90 · n=83 · E85 (2022-06-30) · explicit_prediction · strength 2 ▶ 36:55 SUPPORT

“The easiest SaaS company to start and the one that folks, really talented investors like Sacks will fund overwhelmingly over others, are what's called bottoms up SaaS ... the unfortunate part of that growth curve is that it's pretty terminal within seven to ten years. And after that, you're forced to go to the mid market, and then eventually you're forced to go enterprise. ... Palo Alto Networks is probably the next closest one now.”

Chamath tech w=0.90 · n=83 · E96 (2022-09-17) · explicit_prediction · strength 3 ▶ 17:37 SUPPORT

“So what's interesting to me is you cannot effectively compete, as it turns out, against Microsoft at any point product. And Slack I think is the best example where, you know, Microsoft Teams was fundamentally cannibalizing this business, which is what drove Slack into the arms of Salesforce.”

Sacks tech w=0.77 · n=53 · E96 (2022-09-17) · explicit_prediction · strength 3 ▶ 19:34 SUPPORT

“So basically they get you hooked on the bundle, they then use it to systematically kill or undermine a competitor and then they know you're stuck and then they raise the price. They basically have inflation of the price of the whole bundle. I think it's very anti-competitive. Actually, I think it's akin to dumping.”

Sacks tech w=0.77 · n=53 · E106 (2022-12-03) · explicit_prediction · strength 2 ▶ 1:26:36 OPPOSE

“And what they've shown is a huge slowdown. Basically, their net new ARR that they just added in the previous quarter dropped two-thirds compared to the previous quarter.”

Sacks tech w=0.77 · n=53 · E113 (2023-01-27) · explicit_prediction · strength 3 ▶ 29:41 SUPPORT

“I think that this bundling behavior is a form of dumping, where in the short run, it looks like consumers are benefiting because they're getting a Zoom clone for free or a Slack clone for free. But then what happens is once they've hobbled those companies, they raise the price of the bundle.”

Chamath tech w=0.90 · n=83 · E113 (2023-01-27) · explicit_prediction · strength 3 ▶ 23:54 SUPPORT

“we could build the best product in the world, but if Microsoft gives it away with this other product that is quasi-essential, they'll always beat us. And there's nothing we can do about it.”

Friedberg tech w=1.08 · n=65 · E113 (2023-01-27) · explicit_prediction · strength 3 ▶ 32:14 OPPOSE

“when it comes to software, if your product is the same as the other guy's product, maybe they deserve to win by bundling. And maybe it's okay for them to offer a discount and beat you on pricing.”

Jason tech w=1.05 · n=56 · E113 (2023-01-27) · sentiment · strength 2 ▶ 26:22 OPPOSE

“So I think the marketplace will compete. And if you look at Slack itself, it's still growing the same percentage growth it did inside of Salesforce that it did as an independent company.”