Verticals

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A tale of two purchases

Since 1982, Adobe has dominated the software market. Responsible for such products like Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, and inventing the PDF… But what if I told you that half of those products I just listed were acquisitions? In fact, in its 40 year plus existence, Adobe has acquired over 50 companies.

Just recently, Adobe announced they would spend $20 billion to acquire Figma, four times the price of their next highest purchase. History tells us that Adobe will adopt Figma as one of its own and Figma fans have nothing to worry about in regards to the product being shut down… or does it? In this episode, we’re going to look at two key acquisitions made by Adobe that differ wildly with the eventual fate of the product. From there, we can draw insight on what lies ahead for Figma, Adobe, and the greater SaaS world.

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It started with snowboards

WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento… these companies are among a stacked lineup of business solutions that help you run your own online store. Online retail sales are expected to reach over $6 trillion by 2023. But back in the early 2000s, one company — unbeknownst at the time — paved the way.

Today, Shopify has a market cap of over $30 billion dollars, dwarfing the competition, but founders Tobias Lütke and Scott Lake had no intentions of transforming the entire e-commerce industry. The results of what they found provide valuable insight into anyone running their own SaaS business.

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When Microsoft Double-Crossed Intuit

Hefty fines and prison time. That’s what’ll happen if you don’t have your books in order. You need someone to prevent all the inaccuracies, outdated reports, and unverifiable data that ultimately makes your back office a living hell… It’s a job that often goes thankless. Thankfully there’s an entire segment of businesses that exist to help you out.

At the beginning of 2020, the accounting software market as a whole was valued at $11.9 billion. And it's projected to reach $70 billion by 2030. Several companies are jostling for the ultimate crown like Xero, Sage, and Zoho. But one company has been in the game longer than most…

Today, Intuit has a vast SaaS product line from QuickBooks, to Mint, to their recent acquisition of MailChimp in 2021. But not too long ago, they endured a decades-long battle with Microsoft in an effort to win the top spot in book keeping.

At one point, the war seemed to be over before it could truly begin… but something happened that forced Intuit to fend off Microsoft in any way that they could. The result of which gives folks running their own SaaS company many examples to learn from.

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Is the future Passwordless?

It's estimated that the average person has 100 passwords.

Passwords are supposed to be long, unique, and complicated all to prevent hackers from breaking in. And don’t forget to change all of them at least once every three months. It would be nice if the world didn’t need passwords… and that future might come to fruition, especially with the advent of the password manager.

But which one should you choose? There are a plethora of options like LastPass, Dashlane, Bitwarden… but to me one company seems to stick out:

1Password is a juggernaut in the password management space being one of Canada’s most valuable tech firms at $6.8 Billion as of January 2022. 1Password has all the resources at its disposal to take over the entire market… but are they ready for a passwordless future? The winner in this space is going to be the company that best balances security with convenience. We'll walk through the origins of the password space, 1Password’s rise as a certified SaaS legend, and finally if our future truly is passwordless.

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Slack and the war of the words

Slack is the fastest growing SaaS company today and (possibly) of all time. While Slack is inherently a business communication tool, its value lies in how it helps people work together. Slack has owned this niche for years, and managed to get a grip on the market before megacorps like Google, Meta, and Microsoft.

Slack is now integrated into the Salesforce ecosystem, joining the company in a near $30 billion acquisition in 2021. With the backing of a SaaS legend in Salesforce, Slack is well equipped to stay on top of a market that they helped pioneer.

As we speak though, a battle is brewing between these companies. So, which collaboration tool will reign supreme? Yes, Slack is leading the way, but will it always be able to fend off the threat that Google, Meta, and Microsoft pose? If you have thoughts, make sure you let me know. For now, let’s dive deep into the origins of this kind of communication, early industry beginnings, and finally what makes Slack such a prime example to learn from.

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What if I get sent to spam?

Spam messages account for roughly half of all email traffic. And roughly 1 out of every 10 commercial emails sent is considered spam. So while you may not intentionally send spam, if you’re not careful, a series of bad campaigns can snowball into you being blacklisted from customers.

Mailchimp CEO Ben Chestnut has the answer to beating spam after decades and a metric ton of emails sent. I’ll tell you what that is, and I’m keen to hear your guesses in the comments below, but first we’ve got to get into some background on Mailchimp and the email marketing space.

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What's going on with DocuSign?

Over the past couple of years, the e-signature market has grown by leaps and bounds. By 2027, the global e-signature market as a whole is expected to reach $20.4 billion.

One company in particular seems to have made quite the impression: DocuSign, an OG of the market. But after reaching a share price of $310 in September of 2021, DocuSign’s stock started to tumble — hard.

So how did DocuSign get to such a high peak in the first place? What were the causes of its downfall? And what can you learn from all of it? We get into all of that.

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What Happened to Skype Anyway?

Video calls have become an essential component of the workday. You can strike up a conversation with anyone in the world with just a few clicks. Sales pitches, webinars, team meetings… imagine if video calls didn’t exist and you had to communicate strictly through email…

Fortunately you don’t, and whether it’s WebEx, Google, or Microsoft I’m sure virtual communication is in your day-to-day. But one company seems to be more prevalent than the rest.

Zoom dominates nearly half of the videoconferencing market. In the past few years you’ve had a Zoom happy hour, watched a Zoom reunion, and definitely suffered from Zoom fatigue. So why does Zoom get the biggest piece of the pie?

At the beginning of 2020, Skype controlled 32.4% of the market compared to Zoom’s 26.4%. But, by the following year, Skype dropped to only 6.6%. At this point, I don’t want anyone Skyping benjaminskywalker94… but if you think your old username is better, let me know. 

In such an opportune moment for this industry, where did Skype go wrong? And what did Zoom get so right? In this video we’ll walk through how the industry was formed, the early pioneers, and how Zoom capitalized on the mistakes of Skype. I’m Ben Hillman, and this is Verticals.