Tomorrow morning, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Apple all launch products identical to yours — with unlimited resources.
This is the only meaningful benchmark. As argued in The Five Defensible Moats in AI, survival now depends entirely on structural advantage, not speed, not features, not UI.
The test below exposes how much real defensibility you have.
Answer These Five Questions Honestly
Each dimension maps directly to one of the five structural moats that compound with usage. Score each from 0 to 10.
1. Data Defensibility (0-10 points)
Do you possess proprietary data that giants cannot acquire, recreate, or infer? This is the strongest moat, as described in the full essay — because historical data advantages can’t be backfilled by capital.
0: No unique data. 10: Data flywheel: every use → better model → more users.
2. Switching Friction (0-10 points)
How painful — operationally, financially, emotionally — is it for users to migrate to a competitor? This reflects the Workflow Lock-In moat. High switching costs create “structural inertia” the giants cannot break.
0: Users can leave in 30 seconds. 10: Leaving requires re-training, re-implementation, and painful workflow rebuilds.
3. Network Effects (0-10 points)
Does your product become more valuable as more people use it? Directly tied to Data Network Effects and Community Moats. The full essay calls this the “compounding loop” because giants cannot replicate emergent user-to-user value.
0: Usage does not improve the product. 10: Every new user increases total value for all users.
4. Specialization Depth (0-10 points)
Are you the best in the world at a specific, high-value problem? This is Moat 3: Specialization Depth. As described in the essay: “Go deep where giants can only go wide.”
Do you have multi-year contracts, procurement-certified deployments, and enterprise champions? This measures Moat 5: Enterprise Relationships, the stickiest moat in B2B.
0: No institutional contracts. 10: 3-5 year commitments + internal champions + compliance lock-in.
Your Survival Score
Sum your total (0–50). Interpret honestly — the giants won’t care about your narrative.
0–15: CRITICAL (Survival: ~0%)
You have no defensibility. If incumbents enter, you are instantly commoditized. This is “Level 0: No Moat” territory from the essay — feature parity, zero friction, fully replaceable.
16–25: AT RISK (Survival: ~20%)
Some early signs, but fragile. You must choose a moat to deepen immediately — otherwise you drift toward structural irrelevance.
26–35: COMPETITIVE (Survival: ~50%)
Early compounding effects are visible. You’re building one or two genuine moats, but still vulnerable to multi-moat incumbents.
36–50: DEFENSIBLE (Survival: ~70%+)
You possess real structural edges. Even if all five giants launch clones, you withstand the blow. This aligns with the essay’s thesis: “Only moats that compound with usage survive the awakened giants.”
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.
