The Gatsby model is Wordpress. Be the default choice, be open source, run a thriving hosting business and empower a huge economy around theming and extending your main product.
The actual question is whether that model is the same as the wordpress model.
I dont know if you read my comment to which you replied, but my point is that if you look closely they are completely different games. If the VCs thought they were getting into Wordpress2.0, they will find that they were terribly wrong. It's a completely different market with completely different market dynamics.
I agree with you. My comment was meant as a reflection of what I imagine Gatsby's thinking to be. I am really impressed with the technology but quite baffled by the business model at a $200M valuation.
wordpress crushed a lot of proprietary and far more difficult to use options - is that still the case for Gatsby? With 50+ million in VC capital is this a billion dollar market segment today?
The question is whether that model is repeatable.