This is the story of a business failure. More specifically it is the story of an IT company that started with a good business idea to the extent that it identified a set of users, aka, a market, that were solving a problem in a way that could be consolidated, automated and optimized. The company went on to build that automation, sell it to the target market as "software as a service" and not only generate revenue, but make a profit. So why or how could this be considered a business failure? Well for several reasons. While the company had early success to the extend that they had long term contracts with the majority of their target market, but the initial creators hit a wall and could not figure out how to keep growing revenue so they gave up on the company and left to start a new company. Why? For one simple reason. The company had built software whose architecture could not be extended to serve new requirements or new markets. The creators had painted themselves into a corner and eventually gave up.
What do I mean by "give up". Well they gave up on continuing to own and run the company and instead sold it, for a profit I'm sure. (They took the code base and started another company with a slightly different market, put a new "UI face" on the existing software added new new integrations with new software parters. After years of effort with their new startup they are trying to once again trying to sell out, but not finding the price that they want, but that is a different story and not the one being told here.) For several years the company "bounced around" being bought and sold by other larger companies eventually being bought by a venture capitalist firm with expertise and ownership of many other companies in similar markets. Initially that venture capitalist firm became frustrated with the lack of progress on business plans and expectations forced on the firm when they were purchased by the new owners and fired the entire layer of executive management including the CEO, the COO, the CTO and several members of middle management as well.