"Never do a rewrite. It cost us HipChat and Stride, and it probably cost Atlassian the enterprise chat market."
Evidence from the Archive
HipChat / Stride
Atlassian's HipChat rewrite became Stride — by the time it shipped, Slack was miles ahead and Atlassian ultimately sold both to Slack
Tanguy Crusson lived through the failed rewrite that cost Atlassian the enterprise chat market; his advice now is absolutist: never do a rewrite
Crusson is not arguing from principle — he's arguing from a body at the crime scene. HipChat was Slack before Slack: a beloved, fast-growing enterprise chat product with a cult following. When Slack emerged as an existential threat, Atlassian responded by going 'HipChat Go Big.' The platform couldn't absorb that many contributors at once, so the team concluded they had to rewrite.
That rewrite became the product eventually rebranded as Stride. By the time it shipped, Slack had pulled miles ahead and Microsoft Teams had launched with free Office distribution. Atlassian ultimately sold HipChat and Stride to Slack and exited enterprise communications. The stock price went up $10 the day the shutdown was announced. A rewrite, a platformization, and a GTM war at the same time was impossible — and the rewrite was the one they should have refused.
In Tanguy's own words: "The platform is not so ready for so many people to work on it. And so we got to the inevitable, okay, it's too much tech, we can't do much about it so we made the decision to rewrite it. There's lots of literature around there around should you do rewrite? Should you not do rewrite? You ask me now, I tell you never. Trust me." (Describing the moment HipChat decided to rewrite.)