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The only moat left is money?

elliotbonneville.com

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Re: The only moat left is money?

#111

Post by apsurd »

autoconfig wrote: post #63

> When creation was hard, skill was the differentiator: you had to actually be good to make something worth showing. Now the barrier is near zero, so you need reach. Reach costs money or it costs years. Probably both. Creation has progressively been getting easier since the invention of the computer, it is not a new phenomena. This naturally pushes the boundary on what needs to be delivered in order to find paying cu…

sounds like the author is discovering business.

I didn't read the article, but yes, going from 0-1,1-10 is really hard and really rewarding. And it got easier with the Internet. Going from 10-1k and 1k-1M is a different ball-game. Always was.

The dream of running my own company got me to learn programming. 20 years later I'm an employee at a company still dreaming of running my own company. But now I can realize that reality and dreams are not the same and that's ok. As in, I probably really don't want to run my own company. We'll see =P

Re: The only moat left is money?

#112

Post by benatkin »

thornewolf wrote: post #103

For the comment from "Is Show HN dead? No, but it's drowning", the article author editorializes "One of the great benefits of AI tools, is they allow anyone to build stuff... even if they have no ideas or knowledge. One of the great drawbacks of AI tools, is they allow anyone to build stuff... even if they have no ideas or knowledge." into "One of the great benefits of AI tools is they allow anyone to build stuff, ev…

It would be better if the article editorialized it thusly:

> One of the great benefits as well as one of the great drawbacks of AI tools, is they allow anyone to build stuff... even if they have no ideas or knowledge.

I'd paraphrase it with "said that" since the quotations indeed present as though verbatim.

Re: The only moat left is money?

#114

Post by advisedwang »

If someone has a problem they need solved:

* Attention span won't stop them recognizing a solution

* Numerous solutions won't stop them adopting one

* That the developer put little effort into building that solution won't put them off.

The real answer is of course that there's a lot of stuff that being built that doesn't solve people's problems people have, either because it targets a problem that doesn't really exist or because it fails to solve the problem it does target.

Re: The only moat left is money?

#116

Post by RGamma »

caminante wrote: post #96
billconan wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how to prevent others from building a copycat using ai?

The discussion here is going sideways, and I blame the underwhelming blog post. Having money is NOT an economic moat-- i.e., a durable, structural competitive advantage. He overlooks broader, true definition of moat attributes like labor supply, infrastructure, PP&E, brand, network, natural monopolies, switching costs, regulation. These don't go away with commoditized CRUD apps. And quoting someone with decades of ex…

The more I think about it the more brainrot the article really is. As if all problems are solved and pumping out soulless shovelware companies is worth anything. It really is "just one more app" all over again.

Re: The only moat left is money?

#117

Post by hoppp »

This post was an Ad also for his paid social network, it did reach me because the message resonates with me as a builder but I don't want to sign up to a social network

So the attention was there but not the conversion.

Re: The only moat left is money?

#118

Post by random3 »

derf_ wrote: post #108

The way to tell if a business has a moat that I once learned was, "If someone gave you a billion dollars, could you go compete with that business and have a reasonable chance of winning." If the answer is yes, then the business has no moat. The numbers are bigger now, but I think the principle remains the same: money cannot be a moat.

A moat is around something that exists, meant to protect it. You're describing something else, not a moat with your example. OP used moat correctly, creative effort around existing earned skill, brand, etc.

To answer your question. Yes to a player already in a market with lack of funding, a billion dolars could be the necessary moat to win.

Money was, is and likely will be a moat for a while. But as a proxy, it may not be enough as a moat. Scarce resources may require more than money— e.g. IP classes or, if you're China, ASML machines.

Re: The only moat left is money?

#119

Post by shimman »

derf_ wrote: post #108

The way to tell if a business has a moat that I once learned was, "If someone gave you a billion dollars, could you go compete with that business and have a reasonable chance of winning." If the answer is yes, then the business has no moat. The numbers are bigger now, but I think the principle remains the same: money cannot be a moat.

I can't think of a single software company that has a moat then. Good rubric to have and makes sense.

Re: The only moat left is money?

#120

Post by brandav »

Utilizing connections with influencers seems to be the most effective way to break through the noise now. Ironically, that's how it used to be before marketing and product development became so accessible.
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