What’s your company’s moat?
In software, the need to answer this question is critical. Anyone can duplicate your features and code, so you need something else (your moat) that provides distance from them “catching up to you.”
But for every business having a moat is essential.
Your moat could be your brand, a true differentiation (i.e., knowledge of whom you serve), or even patents to provide a barrier between you and your competitors.
I’m not well versed in how to create a moat. I don’t have an MBA (as you can tell from my LinkedIn bio).
But I find it fascinating that few companies are thinking about this. Instead, they keep doing business as usual without figuring out how to build a moat or strengthen a current one.
Let’s focus on brand as a moat to provide you with something to think about. We all can control that component (even if you’re in marketing).
How do we use brand as our moat?
Be different.
In your point of view, values, or how you approach business.
Some examples of this?
- Basecamp
- Gong
- Patagonia
None of those three companies are that much superior to their competition. But they have a stronger brand which draws in more people. Not only that, but it retains people.
Monday.com or Asana may have more customers than Basecamp, a similar software, but they don’t have more loyal customers. If Asana gave a better deal than Monday.com, I would bet many would switch. The same is not true for Basecamp.
They have an actual moat in their POV and how they approach doing business.
They are different.
Are you?
Or are you a turkey on Thanksgiving sitting there waiting to be picked off?
If you’re not different, it’s not too late to begin doing the infrastructure work to stand apart from your competition.
What are your thoughts on moats? Do they matter as much as I think they do?
🧠 + ❤️ // JO