I'd really like to know what 2 is as there's a lot of other options in this space that are also free, open source, and seem to accomplish the same thing. What is the Gatsby sauce?
I think the main value of Gatsby is the community-generated recipes to plug and play...but is there value here?
If you have one very generic application, then maybe you save time upfront. But you are tied into this heavy wrapper around React that will probably cause you problems down the line. And you probably still need a backend. So I am not sure what value is being created?
If you specifically need to generate lots of sites, or you have some performance requirement (and data that doesn't change often) then maybe. But I wouldn't use it to build anything complex (i.e. that would tie me into their product) because building an app isn't that much harder. I am sure there is a niche use but I think most people aren't doing anything complicated with it (I use it that way).
I also don't really see how this could be a Wordpress killer (which is the intent of the fundraising presumably). Wordpress is totally end-to-end, it abstracts away all the right parts. This doesn't. $15m won't change that.
In theory, I think applications like Prismic or Contentful (I think it is) actually break up these tasks better. From your app, you have a (usually) simple API. And it reflects the division of labour in most companies i.e. that code and content are separate (before anyone says it: they aren't offering a different product to Gatsby, if it seems that way then that is the point).
Gatsby Preview / Gatsby Content Mesh is most likely the horse being bet on.
Automattic just raised $300 million dollars a week or so ago.
One vision of success, I'm very sure, is getting acquired by Automattic.
I just browsed around their site wondering the same thing, the conclusion I reached was that their main value proposition is the integrations they provide together with the automation and deployment pipeline as a service. But I must also say it is pretty unclear what you are actually buying with the $50/mo subscription; what do you get compared to just running the software on your laptop?
I was under the impression that Gatsby was just another interchangeable part of the so-called JAMstack...? Could you not get those wins using Pelican, or Hugo, or whatever?
Why?
They charge $50/mo and maybe the recurring revenue checks out for preferential investors to feel comfortable with making a profit. If Gatsby can get their service included in a bunch of the domain name registration sites, pushing out Wordpress, then they get exponentially more customers!
The real question is what they plan to do with the $15 million, followed by why the founders wanted to give up that much of the company as the revenue is probably fine. I don't think they actually are scaling majorly, except sales people. I think they are going to be subsidizing open source development, another developer day care shop that ideally will have the byproduct of making the tooling they use even more easy to use.
Any insight?
I don't follow this reasoning. The hosting sites that offer Wordpress, offer it because it is free. GatsbyJS is free. The service offered by Gatsby is not. Given the difference between $0 and $50/month, I don't see Wordpress going away anytime soon.