Studying the David and Goliath story in the Bible and the endlessly repeated versions of the story through the ages can teach you how to compete today. It will teach you more about asymmetrical warfare and how to use communication strategies to your advantage. 

It will teach you how little beats big. 

Tiny Basecamp launched a new email platform in 2020. They called it hey.com. Soon after launch, they ran afoul of the App Store® regulations. And, a small war ensued. 

Basecamp’s “war” with Apple in the summer of 2020 provides a great case study about how to: 
1) beat Goliath and 

2) defend against David.

Under the first scenario, you are a startup or a smaller business facing a powerful incumbent. Under the second scenario, you are the powerful incumbent defending against an agile and focused entrepreneurial company.

Do these in the order they are listed.

Step 1) Use hey.com. Go to hey.com and register for an email account. It’s free for 14 days. A great way to understand a business is to use its products and services. Spend time on the site learning about what makes hey.com uniquely valuable to its beachhead customers. 

Step 2) Study their conflict with Apple. Start on this page https://hey.com/apple/.  Be sure to note @JasonFried & @DHH’s Twitter feeds for this period. Read the comments, too. Remember that Basecamp has shaped this page for their advantage. How would Apple see this conflict?

Step 3) History shapes strategy. Learn the history of Basecamp, LLC. Go to basecamp.com and study the business. Who is their tribe? How does their community help them fight Apple? How had they built their community? (Note, Basecamp has been a big supporter of Apple in the past and even appeared in Apple ads.) 

Step 4) Use Basecamp, the product. Note, there is a free Personal Edition of Basecamp https://basecamp.com/personal. Example of personal use: https://world.hey.com/tassia/how-i-use-basecamp-to-organize-my-life-3e71de07 What does using their product teach you about the business itself?

Step 4) Read the books and blog posts the leaders of Basecamp wrote. Start with Getting Real https://basecamp.com/gettingreal. Note especially, Ch 4 “Build Less” and Ch 8 “Have an Enemy.”

Step 5) Think through Apple's corporate strategy. Look at Apple's 10K from 2020 and 2021. How important is the App Store® to their strategy? How important are app developers to Apple's strategy?  What significance did the timing of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference have on the outcome?

 Optional Step 6) Launch your own blog or web app using Ruby on Rails (https://guides.rubyonrails.org/getting_started.html) Understanding the Rails community will help you understand how David beat Goliath. Doing this step will get you bonus points ;-)

Step 7)  Business outcome (O) is a function of three things: Strategy(S), Execution (E) & Luck(M); all three are always present to one degree or another in all business outcomes. Conduct an after action review for both Basecamp and Apple using the O = f(S,E,L) formula.

7a) Analyze the outcome for Basecamp in their battle with Apple regarding the launch of hey.com. How was Basecamp able to make Apple back down? Especially, in light of the history of Apple's ability to dominate its App Store® developers. What can you learn from this that will help you in a competitive situation with a much larger, possibly monopolistic, competitor?

Step 7b) Analyze Apple's reaction to Basecamp and the resulting outcome. What could they have done better? What can you learn from this that will help you in a competitive situation with a smaller, scrappier and more entrepreneurial competitor?

Step 8) Get together with your team to discuss what each person learned from this exercise. How can it shape your own strategy as an organization?

Optional Step 9) Send your analyses to me at greg@hey.com. Your ideas may make their way into a lecture, a future blog post, or into a book I'm working on.