// STARTUP COMPARISON
Shippit (funding stagnation) vs Carillion
Shippit (funding stagnation) failed in 2022 due to Competition. Carillion failed in 2018 due to Unit Economics. Different causes, different sectors, different eras — but the same simulation outcome.
| METRIC | 🔥 Shippit (funding stagnation) | 🔥 Carillion |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | SaaS | SaaS |
| Country | Australia | UK |
| Founded | 2014 | 1999 |
| Died | 2022 | 2018 |
| Raised | A$30M | Public company |
| Peak | A$30M raised | £5.2B revenue · 43,000 employees |
| Primary Cause | Competition | Unit Economics |
// WHY EACH FAILED
🔥 Shippit (funding stagnation)
Competition
Shippit built a multi-carrier shipping management SaaS for Australian e-commerce merchants. After raising A$30M, Shopify launched its native Shopify Shipping product with carrier integrations embedded directly into the Shopify checkout. For Shopify merchants — the majority of Shippit's customer base — the native Shopify solution eliminated the need for a third-party shipping tool. Shippit restructured in 2022, refocusing on enterprise customers.
// LESSON
SaaS tools that solve problems for a dominant platform's customers are building on borrowed time. When Shopify, Salesforce, or HubSpot ships the feature natively, your SMB customer base disappears. Build platform-agnostic features or enterprise-depth that the platform won't replicate.
SaaS tools that solve problems for a dominant platform's customers are building on borrowed time. When Shopify, Salesforce, or HubSpot ships the feature natively, your SMB customer base disappears. Build platform-agnostic features or enterprise-depth that the platform won't replicate.
🔥 Carillion
Unit Economics
Carillion was the UK's second-largest construction and services company with £5.2B revenue and thousands of government contracts. It carried £1.5B in pension deficits and £900M in debt. Three profit warnings in 2017 exposed structural insolvency. It entered compulsory liquidation in January 2018 — the largest ever UK trading liquidation — leaving 43,000 employees and thousands of subcontractors unpaid.
// LESSON
Revenue is not solvency. A company with £5.2B in revenue and £2.4B in combined pension and debt obligations is not viable — it is a zombie awaiting a trigger event.
Revenue is not solvency. A company with £5.2B in revenue and £2.4B in combined pension and debt obligations is not viable — it is a zombie awaiting a trigger event.
// EXPLORE FURTHER