You’re describing Unix philosophy basically, right? While I like it I think it doesn’t scale past certain point - think about cases like companies finding they have trouble maintaining a system made up of tons of bash scripts (most config driven systems e.g. CIs fall into this).
Same applies to SaaS IMO.
> ultimately never find their place
Here’s a few counter examples:
- Clickup
- Notion
- Datadog
- Amplitude
I feel like they have found their place quite well.
In fact there’s an industry trend in 2020s of SaaS consolidation over to “vertical SaaS” that just does everything in one tool.
Happy to be proven wrong and hear some counter examples btw, this is just my theory based on what I’ve observed in b2b saas world over past 10ish years
Not going to counter you. In related examples, I will pick ClickUp from your list. It is the closest to this one in terms of trying to combine a database, (multi)composition, and communication (Notion is more specialized than that.)
I would say that in this arena, the 2010s started with Quip and ended with ClickUp. Quip was sold at $750 million, but Salesforce never let it bloom. ClickUp is now worth 4 billion dollars.
Just one critical thought: Consolidation must transcend mere visual modularity and deliver deeper usefull integration to compensate for the absence of features of dedicated tools.
Same applies to SaaS IMO.
> ultimately never find their place
Here’s a few counter examples: - Clickup - Notion - Datadog - Amplitude
I feel like they have found their place quite well.
In fact there’s an industry trend in 2020s of SaaS consolidation over to “vertical SaaS” that just does everything in one tool.
Happy to be proven wrong and hear some counter examples btw, this is just my theory based on what I’ve observed in b2b saas world over past 10ish years