I posted this as a comment on the blog, but it kind of disappeared... so whatever.
I mentioned that sometimes the 800 pound gorilla isn't as slow or bureaucratic as you would think. With PostageApp, we have several large competitors (SendGrid and MailChimp) and they are frighteningly good at pivoting and offering new and exciting features.
I'm having a really fun time watching the developments of all the players in our industry. If you can take something away from fighting with the 800 pound gorillas, it's that you will learn a lot.
SendGrid and MailChimp might be large competitors relative to the size of PostageApp, but the scale difference is orders of magnitude less than the scale difference between WePay and PayPal.
I counted 18 people on the "team" page of SendGrid, and MailChimp's website lists them as having about 70 people working for them. I haven't been able to find exact numbers of employees at PayPal, but I know it's easily into the thousands, and very possibly into the tens of thousands.
I think you have a good point: that relying on being able to move faster than your competitors can be dangerous if your competitors aren't actually slow. I don't think you can really make an accurate comparison between SendGrid/MailChimp and PayPal though. The scale (and culture) is just completely different.
You are completely right, they are huge relative to the size of PostageApp, but they are the 800-pound gorillas in the industry.
There are other, much larger companies such as Exact Target, Eloqua, and Constant Contact, but they serve a different market and are not directly in competition with us.
Wasn't a completely accurate comparison, but just an anecdotal way for me to explain that not all competitors are slow. :)
I mentioned that sometimes the 800 pound gorilla isn't as slow or bureaucratic as you would think. With PostageApp, we have several large competitors (SendGrid and MailChimp) and they are frighteningly good at pivoting and offering new and exciting features.
I'm having a really fun time watching the developments of all the players in our industry. If you can take something away from fighting with the 800 pound gorillas, it's that you will learn a lot.