The acquirer rarely adds any features to a startup. When you're small, adding features is relatively easier. If you haven't added the feature by acquisition, it will only take longer when you have even more customers and more stakeholders and a more complicated set of relationships.
The acquirer is mainly adding the ability to scale up, either through financial stability or other resources. In the case of Flickr and Yahoo, this is a relationship with its ups and downs, but Yahoo contributed a login system, search technology, millions of customers, data centers, and so on. Except for the search stuff, none of this is really a feature.
The acquirer also extends the startup's lifetime, so they can think about taking a year or more to add a feature.
For most startups, acquisition represents getting off the treadmill of adding features they can't sustain so their customers will continue to like them. Then they spend a year or more just catching up with their own success, while also integrating with the acquirer's infrastructure.
The acquirer is mainly adding the ability to scale up, either through financial stability or other resources. In the case of Flickr and Yahoo, this is a relationship with its ups and downs, but Yahoo contributed a login system, search technology, millions of customers, data centers, and so on. Except for the search stuff, none of this is really a feature.
The acquirer also extends the startup's lifetime, so they can think about taking a year or more to add a feature.
For most startups, acquisition represents getting off the treadmill of adding features they can't sustain so their customers will continue to like them. Then they spend a year or more just catching up with their own success, while also integrating with the acquirer's infrastructure.