// startup autopsy

Crocodoc

Document annotation pioneer absorbed into the enterprise cloud

acquisition gone wrongAcqui-hire

Fatal mistake: Crocodoc built on a compelling but narrow use case, making it an easy acquisition target rather than a defensible standalone business.

Founded	2010
Closed	2013
Country	USA
Sector	Developer tools

50%

Key Events Timeline

2010-01-01

FOUNDING

Crocodoc founded in the USA, building an HTML5 document viewing and annotation platform.

2010-06-01

FUNDING

Crocodoc raised seed funding to develop its document collaboration technology.

2012-09-01

PRODUCT LAUNCH

Crocodoc launched its public API, enabling third-party apps to embed document viewing and annotation.

2013-06-01

ACQUISITION ATTEMPT

Box acqui-hired Crocodoc, integrating the team and technology into its enterprise cloud platform.

2015-01-01

SHUTDOWN

Box shut down Crocodoc's public API, ending the standalone service entirely.

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Crocodoc was an HTML5 document viewing and annotation platform founded in the early 2010s. The startup was acquired by Box in 2013 in an acqui-hire transaction, where Box was primarily interested in acquiring t...

he team and talent rather than continuing the product as a standalone service. This type of acquisition is a classic failure pattern—the core technology was absorbed into Box's broader product suite,

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Crocodoc collapsed from crocodoc built on a compelling but narrow use case, making it an easy acquisition target rather than a defensible standalone business.. Documented cause, verified lesson, all failure signals.

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Key Events Timeline

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