SaaStr · 2013-03-25
· 4819d
When Big Companies Can Kill You (And When They Can't)
Jason Lemkin analyzes the conditions under which large corporations can successfully enter and dominate startup markets versus when they fail. Drawing from his experience at Adobe/EchoSign and as an F500 tech VP, he identifies three critical success factors: top-level executive support, acquisition of sufficiently mature companies, and strong product attachment to existing platforms.
Metrics in this report
Development Lead Requirement
24months
minimum
Competitive advantage needed to survive BigCo competition
EchoSign ARR (Annual Projection)
100+$m
estimated
Adobe Sign annual projection for fiscal year
EchoSign ARR (Quarter)
64$m
single quarter
Adobe Sign post-acquisition performance
Evernote Headcount
400+employees
minimum
Required organizational scale for sustained innovation
Product Parity Development Time
18months
minimum
Time required for BigCo clone to reach feature parity