moat-analysis
Moat Analysis — Defensibility for Bootstrappers
What keeps customers from leaving and competitors from copying. Calibrated to AI-native reality where code is cheap and product moats are mostly fake.
Philosophy
Most moats are bullshit. When code is cheap and AI can replicate features in a weekend, "technology advantage" and "first mover" are not moats. They're stories founders tell themselves. A real moat is something that gets stronger the longer you operate and that a well-funded competitor cannot buy or build overnight.
Read .claude/skills/_shared/philosophy.md for the full bottleneck shift and user-investment lock-in framework. For moat analysis specifically:
The grab-them-by-the-balls principle. Design products where usage creates investment, and investment creates lock-in. This isn't evil — it's good product design. A product people invest in is a product people value. See the shared philosophy for the lock-in checklist.
Distribution is the real moat when code is cheap. A mediocre product with great distribution beats a great product with no distribution. Owned audience, brand trust, channel dominance, community presence — durable advantages that can't be cloned with AI tools.
AI-native reality check — fake moats:
- "We built it first" / "Our technology is superior" / "We have more features" / "Our team is great" — NOT moats when code is cheap.
- What IS a moat: things that take time to accumulate and can't be fast-forwarded — data, relationships, trust, community, user investment, regulatory position, distribution leverage.