Apparently most of the market doesn’t want the same things you want.
Otherwise Affinity would be the giant acquiring a much smaller Canva team.
That said, this is also further proof of why the standalone software license model died. If Affinity had a great business of their own, they wouldn’t need to sell.
Turns out if you want a software team to continue providing value to you, you should probably put them on salary (subscription).
> If Affinity had a great business of their own, they wouldn’t need to sell.
They don't need to. They mentioned that in their FAQ:
> We have to say that selling Serif was not on our minds at all, but when Canva contacted us (only a couple of months ago!) there was something about it which just felt right.
Riiight. They had a fantastically enjoyable and profitable business going for themselves...but they decided they'd rather give up all control and sell their baby to a much larger corporate entity, give up the future upside from any growth, and play office politics instead of control their own destiny.
Not really. They did so because people pay MUCH more for much less functionality in Canva, and so accepting the offer gives them a payday they couldn't hope to accumulate themselves.
Otherwise Affinity would be the giant acquiring a much smaller Canva team.
That said, this is also further proof of why the standalone software license model died. If Affinity had a great business of their own, they wouldn’t need to sell.
Turns out if you want a software team to continue providing value to you, you should probably put them on salary (subscription).