Lenny's Newsletter: what actually counts as a moat in the AI era
HamelHusain · x · 2026-10-14
Lenny teams up with Dan Hockenmaier to argue that most claimed "moats" aren't: distribution matters more than ever but isn't durable defensibility; execution speed only buys shots on goal; brand rarely saves startups. The piece offers a framework for judging whether a startup you might join is built to last, with a collage of contradictory "the only moat is X" takes.
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