[kbos87]

I don’t know all the specifics of the interaction that happened here, but the hard truth is that if you aren’t eventually expecting this to happen to your business - regardless of the space you are in - you aren’t being realistic about the nature of competition in SaaS.

Plaid has enjoyed years of life without much direct competition. My hunch is that few other businesses were interested in the space because it feels inherently fragile, and Plaid has had the benefit from having spent years doing a lot of sausage making.

The inevitable dynamics of competition are finally catching up to them. In established corners of SaaS a vendor with a unique idea barely gets 6 months before their competitors have replicated anything that shows signs of product market fit. Not saying it doesn’t sting, but that’s reality.

[pbreit]

Well, Yodlee & Finicity pre-dated Plaid by many years. But Plaid executed much better.

[kbos87]

Thank you for the education on the history here. That makes Plaid’s indignance about new competition even less palatable.

[websap]

Stripe seems to be gearing up to become the AWS of the FinTech world.