Tweet Hunter maker: moats are discovered, not designed — audience was a byproduct

tibo_maker · x · 2026-10-07

Indie maker tibo (@tibomaker) pushes back on the claim that his success rests on an audience moat: when he built Tweet Hunter he had no followers.
The moat grew from one product decision — using his own product daily, in public: writing threads with it, testing hooks, scheduling everything. "The product needed proof it worked. I was the proof."
He extends the argument to Cursor (started as an editor people opened daily, models and moat came later) and Midjourney (launched on Discord because it was the fastest way to ship; the shared-prompt learning became the moat).
Core thesis: moats — network effects, brand, data, distribution — look designed in hindsight but start as small, unstrategic product decisions; you can't see yours on day 1 because it doesn't exist yet. Do the work longer than everyone else, and something hard to copy emerges.

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