The central question introduced in the full essay is simple and brutal:
If incumbents copied your product tomorrow—with unlimited resources—would your users stay?
Only moats that compound with usage, deepen with time, or embed into workflow and organizations can survive the awakened giants.
The five moats below are the only structural advantages that scale as fast as AI improves.
MOAT 1 — Data Network Effects
The strongest and most nonlinear moat.
Mechanism Every user interaction generates proprietary data signals that strengthen the model, which improves the product, which attracts more users, which generates more data.
A compounding loop that Big Tech cannot replicate retroactively.
This aligns with the article’s framing:
“Usage creates the moat. Time strengthens it. Incumbents cannot buy history.”
Why it survives giants
Historical data is time-locked.
Behavioral patterns, writing signatures, and task-specific corrections become proprietary.
Reinforcement from usage compounds daily.
The Flywheel Usage → Data → Better Model → More Usage → Wider Moat
Mechanism A passionate user community produces templates, prompts, tutorials, workflows, best practices, culture, and identity. This creates value the company itself could never manufacture.
As noted in the original essay:
“Community output compounds faster than product output.”
Why it survives giants
Culture can’t be copied.
Shared learning and identity create emotional lock-in.
Community-generated assets scale faster than enterprise R&D.
The Flywheel More Members → More Content → More Value → Stronger Identity → More Members
The trust moat that takes years to build and seconds to lose.
Mechanism Multi-year contracts, procurement hurdles, compliance reviews, and deep organizational integrations create enormous inertia. Ripping out an incumbent AI vendor is a multi-quarter project.
The underlying insight, as stated in the essay:
“Once you’re inside a Fortune 500, the cost of replacing you becomes politically and operationally catastrophic.”
Why it survives giants
Champions have personal stakes.
Procurement teams avoid redoing 18 months of evaluation.
Legal and security approvals become reusable vendor passports.
The Flywheel Longer Tenure → Deeper Integration → More Custom Work → Higher Switching Cost → Renewal
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
