Founder MindsetEmerging Pattern

Divest products you cannot win rather than slowly bleeding resources into losing battles

When you honestly assess that you can't win a category, divesting is better than continuing to add features while losing market share. The opportunity cost of not divesting is reduced focus on battles you can win.

When to use

When a product is growing but losing competitive ground to a focused competitor who is executing better

Don't do this

Continuing to invest in a losing product because admitting defeat is uncomfortable, slowly draining resources from winning opportunities

2 Founders Who Did This

1
Atlassianby Jay Simons

Divested HipChat/Stride to Slack in 2018 after acknowledging they could not win despite product quality, choosing honest assessment over prolonged losing battle

Result:Freed resources to focus on core products that could win, maintaining company acceleration rather than spreading thin across unwinnable markets
See Atlassian growth story →
2
Atlassianby Mike Cannon-Brookes & Scott Farquhar

Sold HipChat/Stride intellectual property to Slack in 2018 and built deep integrations instead of continuing to compete in team messaging.

Result:Freed resources to focus on core strengths (Jira, Confluence, Trello). Partnership with Slack created better customer experience than competing products.
See Atlassian growth story →