Gantto
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Gantto was a web-based project-management tool launched in August 2010 by founder and CEO Christopher R. Carlson, a Y Combinator Summer 2010 company backed by Y Combinator and 500 Startups. It offered an intuitive, drag-and-drop Gantt chart interface in the browser as an alternative to Microsoft Project, with MS Project XML import and presentation generation, and customers that reportedly included Twitter, Lucasfilm and Fujitsu.
02 / Gantto FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Gantto could not differentiate enough in a saturated market. Despite a visually appealing interface, its niche appeal, low switching costs and limited integration depth left it unable to hold ground against larger project-management players. Rather than shut down outright, it was acquired in July 2013 by Dutch competitor Tom's Planner — which bought it for its market position and active user base, then phased out the Gantto product and migrated its users.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Company founded
Christopher R. Carlson launches Gantto in San Francisco and enters Y Combinator's Summer 2010 batch with a browser-based Gantt chart tool.
- Acquisition
On July 9, 2013, Dutch competitor Tom's Planner acquires Gantto for its user base and market position; the Gantto product is gradually phased out and users are migrated.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Browser-based Gantt charts as an alternative to MS Project
- 02
YC S10 backing; customers include Twitter and Lucasfilm
- 03
Saturated market; weak differentiation and low switching costs
- 04
Acquired by Tom's Planner in July 2013; product phased out