Flipkart

Flipkart represents ecological succession in business form. Founded in Bangalore in 2007, the company emerged only after pioneers like Infosys had prepared the ground - training engineers, establishing reliable connectivity, proving venture capital could work in India. Like seral stage species colonizing after pioneers break virgin soil, Flipkart was built by talent trained at Infosys and enabled by infrastructure pioneers created.

Walmart's $16 billion acquisition in 2018 (77% stake) reveals why mature companies buy growth stages they can't grow internally. The acquisition gave Walmart access to 10,000+ engineers and India's exploding e-commerce market - addressing both metabolic limits (talent acquisition velocity) and competitive limits (US market saturation). Walmart couldn't replicate Flipkart's ecosystem position even with infinite capital because the succession window had closed.

The lesson: ecological succession creates opportunities that only exist at specific moments. Flipkart couldn't have succeeded in 2000 (no infrastructure) or 2015 (Amazon India entrenched). Timing isn't about being early or late - it's about matching your organism to the ecosystem's developmental stage.