NodeOne has built our own distribution NodeStream. In the beginning NodeStream was meant to be a distribution aimed for online publishing with "killer features" for Editors.
NodeStream still have these functionality, but NodeStream is a lot more that that today.
We usually talk about NodeStream as a platform distribution today and the history behind this move is hopefully something that you can learn from.

We love distributions and as a Drupalshop we would really love to be able to use a Distribution that easily gives us a site half way though the project with a simple installation wizard. Anyone that tried to sell that if your are not selling an application or very tailor made solution would probably agree with me if I say that most distributions are not so easy to customize after running that slick and sexy Wizard.
It gets even worse when you what to upgrade to the next version of some modules or even worse a new version of Drupal.
NodeStream does not support this either, Im sorry but at least we created a structure that you can follow that actually give you the opportunity to upgrade NodeStream without overriding to much of you custom code.

We also had a very clear stand point when we created NodeStream:
-NodeStream is and will always be pure Drupal!
-The project is maintained on drupal.org
-All modules used is maintained on drupal.org
-No custom modules at all, besides from the installation profile and some integration code.
-NodeStream components should always be able to run standalone, so that you can use only the parts that you like.

The result for NodeOne is that all project we run can use NodeStream, even though the project vary a lot between each other.
We look at NodeStream as a CMS layer on top of Drupal and our future plans with NodeStream is to bring even more development powers inte the platform.