[chiefalchemist]

> Long learning period

True. But this is why Goliaths get run over by Davids. When it take half a year's salary to begin getting return, that's six months of high risk. And then when your product cycles are six to twelve months, you're slow and venerable.

Full disclosure: I do some Shopify development. It's a love hate relationship. There are things that are great. But there are things where I stop and think "For Ford's sake??!!?? Really??" This article explains the excess of the latter.

[edmundsauto]

When was the last time a David ran over Goliath because they moved faster?

[mtnGoat]

Sears... Amazon and the likes not only ate, but stole their breakfast lunch and dinner.

Blockbuster... Could have invested in their David but didn't, I'm sure they're still regretting that.

To name a couple fairly obvious and well known examples of large incumbents being knocked down.

[chiefalchemist]

Uber and Lyft knocked the taxi industry on its arse.

Amazon ate Walmart alive, alone with a handful of other retailers.

Etc.

[aprdm]

How is uber and lyft not the goliah when they have billions of dollars poured into them vs the local tax companies...?

Uber is global, your local tax company is not. Plus your local tax company is restrained by you know, laws.

Amazon vs Walmart is also not a good comparison .. I believe this david vs goliah is mostly start up people that think too highly of themselves! In reality you have Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft... all huge companies that have been dominant for decade + and aren't too different from the post.

[chiefalchemist]

We're talking about culture, agility, and mindset, not war chest per se. That is, lean and aggressive vs slothy enterprise.

[twblalock]

> Amazon ate Walmart alive, alone with a handful of other retailers.

Walmart is actually doing very well, especially in e-commerce.

[Supermancho]

Walmart online growth was directly cannibalized by AMZ for some time. Walmart stopped getting eaten, but the history stands.

As it stands, you have the poorest Americans (the long tail) competing against a small section of the rise who can afford and trust that shipping goods to their door. The overlap is minor, excepting for perishables.

[chiefalchemist]

Now. Maybe. But when Walmart was #1 they could have - and should have - never let Amazon and the like get a toe hold. Jeff ran up and over Walmart in less than a decade. It took Walmart well over a decade - and a few acquisition - to find their feet and sort it out.

David is so far ahead Walmart is looking in the mirror thinking they're ahead :)