How Segment survived its brush with death to become a customer data unicorn

https://venturebeat.com/2019/12/04/how-segment-survived-its-brush-death-become-customer-data-management-unicorn/

by gwintrob • 7 years ago

84 9 7 years ago

Surprised to see that mparticle isn’t listed as a competitor. I’ve seen what Salesforce is working on in this space and it’s nothing compared to mparticle and segment.

mkatz0630• 7 years ago

Thanks for the shout. Just wait to see what else is coming from us in the coming months...

ajones05• 7 years ago

An abbreviated version of this story is included in this great post on how 22 now-successful companies got their first users/customers https://www.referralcandy.com/blog/how-to-get-first-customer... (Segment, Tinder, Quora, Reddit, etc.)

jph• 7 years ago

Segment won developer mindshare because Peter and the team made a strong commitment to developer success.

For my project, he came onsite to help me, then invited me back to HQ to meet the team, debrief, and share the roadmap.

I have recommended Segment many times since then, and I'm stoked for the company's success.

teddyh• 7 years ago

Apparently user fingerprinting is where the money is.

I note that the uMatrix web browser add-on blocks the entire domain of the company.

nkrisc• 7 years ago

Must be on one of those lists, because my pi-hole blocks it too. It's funny, just yesterday I was searching around for some server log analytics solutions for my site (settled on GoAccess for now) and they kept popping up in my search results. Never clicked on them though as the link descriptions made it clear they weren't what I was looking for.

Nextgrid• 7 years ago

Yep.

The world would've been a better place if Segment had more than just a "brush" with death.

cyberferret• 7 years ago

The title is a bit misleading IMO. The company was in a state of flux before they pivoted and rebranded as Segment as far as I can read (when they had a different name). The actual company 'Segment' seems to have been on a great course of growth since then.

bobosha• 7 years ago

This is an all-too-common story with startups, as PG points out in several essays. Often startups only make sense looking back, and don't lend themselves to business-plans & analytics.

How Segment survived its brush with death to become a customer data unicorn

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