Moat

Also called Defensibility and Competitive Advantage

The durable advantage that makes it hard for competitors to copy you and take your customers: network effects, switching costs, a brand, proprietary data, or economies of scale.

Why it matters

Anyone can copy a feature. A moat is why you keep winning after they do. Early on you rarely have one, but knowing which moat you are building toward shapes what you invest in before rivals arrive.

For example

Google's moat is a mix of scale, data, and brand, so even a technically similar search engine cannot pull users away.

Go deeper

7 Powers: a Summary of Hamilton Helmer's Framework Commoncog · article A crisp summary of the best framework for durable advantage, the seven distinct powers a real moat can be built on, without reading the whole book. Open commoncog.com →

The Moat Map Stratechery · article Thompson connects how a company relates to its suppliers and users to the kind of moat it can build, a sharper strategic lens than the usual moat talk. Open stratechery.com →

Related terms

Also in Starting Up

See how founders actually handle this on Founder life, part of the Starting Up hub.

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