You have to wonder how many advances we ' ve wasted towards reducing carbon emissions , offering cleaner gas at the pump , applications of solar power tossed aside for the Energizer bunny , electrical cars never made in favor of the same old guzzlers . There ' s money to be made in these areas . If a car had 80 mpg , I ' d buy that car . Why would a company shut down this profitable technology ? They wouldn ' t . The comment you ' re replying to is wrong . If a competitor is so disruptive to the market , then a major player might purchase them and use their economies of scale to increase the disruption even more . They now have that much more power over their competitors . I mean , dude was talking about DollarShaveClub selling out , but the DSC brand is still kicking using the same subscription sales model , but providing better and more diverse products at lower prices than the entrenched sellers . Sure . Some many inventor ' s dream is to sell or license their disruptive product to a big player and then live off the profits or royalties . That IP or technology is often incorporated into the business of the purchaser . Look at GoogleAlphabet with Nest , YouTube , Blogger , Meebo , Waze , Boston Dynamics , and all the other companies and technologies on this list . Amazon , Microsoft , Apple , and many other companies outside the techworld have a similar list .