[pjbster]

Great article. I think the key differentiator in all of these stories is the "stickiness" of their customers. Netscape's customers could switch at no cost (apart from migrating bookmarks, maybe?) and did. Basecamp's were much more invested in the product and 37Signals never abandoned them during the time they starting building its replacement.

I get the impression (having never used it) that Fogbugz's users liked it but that Fog Creek couldn't win new larger customers once Jira arrived on the scene. And since it was a shrink-wrapped one-time purchase FC couldn't fund a paydown of their tech debt.

Netscape will forever be remember though for this:

  "Less than two years after it was released, the company’s $3-billion IPO launched the dot-com era."

This. This is why many of us are here reading this today.