To be fair Adobe IPO'd in 1986, long before SaaS was a thing. I wouldn't say they quite fit the bill of "built by selling large enterprise software contracts".
I would. Back in 1986, enterprises paid for Adobe software (paid a lot) and everyone else pirated it. Piracy was the free tier -- you'd pirate it as a student or small business, then pay as you either got a job at a big company or turned into a big company.
I agree. Even at the small agency I worked as an intern, all Photoshop's were pirated. Not cracked but same serial with no online checking. Licensing for small companies wasn't a thing until online verifications became a thing.
Yes, but they later pivoted into SaaS and have gone on to dominate enterprise CMO budgets. It's one of the most impressive business model changes by a large company.
