InVision – Killed Unicorn by Alexander Gornyi

The post was originally published in Russian on Alexander’s Telegram channel. Alexander kindly agreed to republish what we think is of great value to our readers.

Until about the end of 2018, the history of the American #startupoftheday InVision is a perfect example of well-deserved success. The startup was either the first to invent or the best one to implement online prototyping. In his system, the designer collects all his sketches and sets up the connections between them: after clicking on one button, a window pops up, and if you follow the link, you will find yourself on a specific screen. Colleagues and customers receive a clickable demo, check whether they understood each other correctly, and generally see whether the thing turned out to be convenient. And this is before the programmer wrote the first line of code!

There are many additional elements added to this functionality. For example, you can leave comments directly on the aspects of the prototype. In addition, inside InVision, the tools for simultaneous collaboration are built-in, an internal analog of Trello, and even an automatic recording of the user’s reaction to a new interface. It’s a mini UX laboratory for everyone on a smartphone.

Designers worldwide were tapping into user-friendly software. The Fortune 500 companies were buying corporate rates, and investors were fighting for the opportunity to participate in the rounds of ever-higher ratings. As a result, the startup capitalization in December 2018 was $1.9 bln.

And then Figma took off. It doesn’t compete head-on with InVision; its product is different. There is no clickable demo, but as it turns out, the clickable demo is not necessary. The ability to draw and interact in one place outperformed watching and interacting in one place. The scan of the screens clearly shows the transitions so as not to worry about separate software. Instead of growing, InVision’s popularity went down.

And now I’m curious how it will end. There will be no new venture rounds. It is difficult for an unfashionable company to enter an IPO even through SPAC. I can’t believe in bankruptcy. The only option is to sell to a strategist, someone like Adobe, or a big fund like Vista. But I won’t even make guesses about the assessment.

https://www.invisionapp.com/

#mega-round #us #technology

Startup: InVision

Translation : Valeria Stupnikova