// STARTUP COMPARISON
99designs vs Trovit
99designs failed in 2021 due to Acquisition Gone Wrong. Trovit failed in 2014 due to Acquisition Gone Wrong. Both failed for the same reason — Acquisition Gone Wrong.
| METRIC | 🔥 99designs | 🔥 Trovit |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Marketplace | Marketplace |
| Country | Australia | Spain |
| Founded | 2008 | 2006 |
| Died | 2021 | 2014 |
| Raised | $45M | Bootstrapped then acquired |
| Peak | $100M revenue | €50M revenue |
| Primary Cause | Acquisition Gone Wrong | Acquisition Gone Wrong |
// WHY EACH FAILED
🔥 99designs
Acquisition Gone Wrong
99designs, Australia's leading design contest marketplace, raised $45M and reached $100M in revenue. Vista (formerly Vistaprint) acquired 99designs in 2021. Post-acquisition, the independent product roadmap was absorbed into Vista's suite of small business tools. The design contest format that made 99designs distinctive was progressively deprioritized in favor of Vista's template-based offering.
// LESSON
When a specialist marketplace is acquired by a generalist SMB platform, the specialist feature becomes one tab in a dashboard. The distinctive competitive positioning that built the marketplace becomes a checkbox in the acquirer's feature list.
When a specialist marketplace is acquired by a generalist SMB platform, the specialist feature becomes one tab in a dashboard. The distinctive competitive positioning that built the marketplace becomes a checkbox in the acquirer's feature list.
🔥 Trovit
Acquisition Gone Wrong
Trovit was a classifieds search aggregator founded in Barcelona with strong positions in Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian markets. It was acquired by Japan's Next Co. in 2014 for approximately €80M. Under Japanese corporate ownership, product focus deteriorated, key engineers left, and the platform was gradually wound down and replaced by Next's own products.
// LESSON
Acquisition price does not guarantee product continuity. A culturally misaligned buyer destroys more value than they paid — especially when the value was a product culture that cannot be transplanted.
Acquisition price does not guarantee product continuity. A culturally misaligned buyer destroys more value than they paid — especially when the value was a product culture that cannot be transplanted.
// EXPLORE FURTHER