The landscape has changed a lot over the last few years imo. A...

The landscape has changed a lot over the last few years imo. A lot more competitors building big facilities.
In my opinion NextDC lost its early lead, the follow up investments were not nearly as ambitious as it's original were at the time.

There are some a lot of serious players who have expanded/are expanding.
Sydney:
* Airtrunk started later and now have 2 x ~100MVA facilities in Sydney.
* Equinix have probably ~120-150MVA constructed/under construction.
* Macquarie Data Centres large expansion at Macquarie Park.
* Digital Realty (large campus announced multi-hundred MW).
* Canberra Data Centres have large campus.
At this point in time from a built capacity point of view in Sydney
1) Airtrunk
2) Equinix
3) Global Switch
4) NextDC/Macquarie Telecom

Once S3 is finished I think NextDC only slots into 3)

NextDC had a few problems and distractions along the way.
APDC fight.
M2 construction really prioritised, but growth nothing like M1 (location? market? competition?). Never talked about.
S2 way to late to market (not as ambitious as competitors).

Interestingly Robin Khuda who was part of PIPENetworks & NextDC left and started Airtrunk. Bevan Slattery also divested.

Did the company go from a startup/startup culture, to another big slow moving bureaucratic business?

In the end, maybe none of the above matters. I just like to think about the bull & bear arguements.