Tech Giants Ending Small Startups – An Analysis Of MS Loop vs Notion.

Microsoft is trying to put Notion out of the game; They did this before with Slack. Let's analyse, then recommend how to deal with this when, and not if, it happens.

🕒 Here’s a TLDR summary:

• 💻 Microsoft Loop is officially launched. This is a direct alternative to Notion.

• 🇳 Notion has been growing for years while being valued at $10 billion.

• 🤔 Now, with Microsoft getting in the game, Notion’s growth is threatened. But wait, this happened before.

  • Slack was growing for quite a while before Microsoft Teams showed up and slowed down its growth. It later got sold to Salesforce.

• 🤖 Will Notion end up like Slack? Most probably, given that Microsoft is using AI, or Copilot, in all their products.

• 📔 (For Paid Subscribers) Let’s do some business consultancy — What do you do to avoid being in this position? How do you handle competition from the giants?

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Microsoft Notion, Sorry, Microsoft Loop

They do this. They take a startup that’s hot in the market. Then, they replicate it for their users. In a nutshell, they don’t want a Microsoft customer to use anything outside of Microsoft. That’s not evil, is it? The truth is almost all platforms don’t want you to use any other platform.

For instance:

• LinkedIn’s algorithm works better for people who post without linking externally.

• Medium has the same behavior.

• Freelancing websites like Upwork and Fiverr don’t even allow you to go outside of their platform to communicate.

Every tech company wants to keep you in their ecosystem. But with this mindset, will there be any tech innovation? Notion has been trending with a valuation of over $10 billion. Just googling Notion templates will result in hundreds of results.

Notion transformed from a note-taking app to the perfect productivity app. But that’s not a deal breaker for Microsoft. The rule stays the same, “Do not let a Microsoft user use something else. Get them all the candy they like right here at home.”

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Will Notion end up like Slack?

Honestly, Slack is a top-notch badass app. Notion is as well. But Slack had raised $1.4 billion before becoming a giant. Then, Microsoft Teams started spreading nonstop.

But they had time to breathe and dominate a market. Notion didn’t have that much time, and Microsoft is coming in hot.

They released Microsoft Loop, a Notion alternative. But that’s not all.

They also incorporated Copilot, their version of ChatGPT, into almost all their apps. So Notion does not only have to deal with Loop. It has to deal with Loop on steroids.

I wouldn’t bet against Microsoft at that stage. I’m in love with Notion and Slack; I have been using them for over a year now and can’t imagine my work life without them.

But Microsoft is going all AI at the speed of light. That’s intimidating to any startup on its way.

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Four precautions you could take to avoid this happening to your startup.

Sometimes it’s beyond your control. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prepare for it. Let’s chit-chat.

Firstly, depending on what you do, think of a patent option.