Our competitor just got acquired by Atlassian
Hey IH! 👋
Today Atlassian acquired a small venture-funded startup in Boulder called Halp. Halp has built a light-weight, Slack-first helpdesk tool for teams. From what I can tell, Atlassian acquired them to fill a void that their existing product offering (Jira and Jira Service Desk) isn't catering to with light-weight use cases.
Curious to hear what the community thinks about big companies acquiring competitive tools to what you're building. Do you see it as validation? How have you leveraged these initiatives for the projects you're hacking on?
For context: Obie is a Slack-first knowledge base product that brings answers where questions are asked. If an answer or an article cannot be found, Obie will create a ticket and send it to an existing helpdesk system (like Jira Service Desk).
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Seems like validation that the need is real.
It's also possible that this will present an opportunity for you long term if people churn because they're not interested in being a part of the Atlassian ecosystem.
An opportunity that you could also consider is being the one to share this news with a few other tech journalists who might find it interesting. In your outreach, include a quote highlighting your thoughts on what the acquisition means for the market and the journalist may quote you in the article and give your startup some press / a backlink.
That's such a great idea! Thank you!
I came across Halp 4-5 months ago when I was really searching for a way to connect my paid slack community to a KB and tried them out, I think "slack-first" is a real market as traditional helpdesk & KB solutions are getting very heavy. They seemed to focus a bit more on mid-market where you look like more of an Enterprise solution? (based on price[point)?
Just saw the Start-up version, how new is that? I recall taking a quick look at you guys when i was searching but didn't see that option?
Ah, great feedback! Thanks, Damian. You're not the first to suggest the "startup" version is a little hidden. Though, it is new. This is a nice kick in the ass to make that option more prominent.
Would love to hear your thoughts if you end up trying Obie...
https://obie.ai/solutions/access/how-it-works
Checking it out now :) Do the FAQ & KB count as Knowledge Integrations?
They do.. we actually just changed that because some folks wanted to swap for a 3rd party integration instead..
Chris, so $15k MRR is not enough of validation for you? ;)
hahaha no no, it is 😉
I'd see it as validation and you should double down on your space! You can out execute Halp now that they are bogged down in an acquisition and integration process.
This also means other players in the space will be looking at acquisitions too. Often when you see BigCo make an acquisition, their competitors follow as they don't want to be left behind. This could be really good for your market!
Interesting perspective! Thanks @mronge 🙏 good point with the being bogged down part.
I agree with @Sheepp, sounds like good news if you compare favourably to the acquired product, and especially if you can differentiate on functionality. Potential downside is they may now have a much larger marketing budget than you do!
Definitely more marketing budget now 😂 but I agree, validation at least.
Ask yourself how do you compare to that solution eg. why did they contact them and not you ?
If you're close enough, your idea is validated. You can play on your difference to the Atlassian ecosystem : what is bothersome with Atlassian that you can do differently as an independant solution ?
Atlassian is a PITA (pain in the ass) for us not using Jira, etc. The new forced Atlassian account for my PAID Trello boards is pissing me off and making me look at Airtable seriously for the first time. I would definitely message around the pain points for non Atlassian customers
Yes, I like that. Looking to see where there is more "green space"!