Everyone in software startups is looking for the sustainable technological advantage. Something they can do that will set them apart from everyone else. VCs definitely tell you this is something you must have. They say this is one of the main things they looks for in a startup.
Some say it is some radical new technology no one else would ever think of. Some say it is having the right team. That you may not completely know what you want, but with the right time you will discover it as you go along. And be agile enough to stay ahead of everyone.
However I believe it doesn’t exist for startups. I think anything you can do at a boot strap or seed funding level anyone else can do. Sure you may have some new idea but once you do implement the idea, it will not be very hard for someone else to copy it and there is no real protection against this. No patents don’t count. First they are generally easy to get around, and second you can’t afford to enforce it.
At first I thought maybe this just applied to software. The cheap reproduction of it meant that it was commoditized easily, like how no one pays for a compiler, operating system, web server, web browser, office suite, video editing software, enterprise CRM, etc. any more.
But this doesn’t only apply to software, … well my brialliant non-software anecdoctal example is escaping me now. But I still believe that the same applies to any industrial revolution process like the assembly line, bicycle, tractor, cotton gin, light bulb, telephone. They are pretty easy to make after someone already built it. And I don’t think that much is stopping someone from doing it.
However all is not lost. Software still sucks. Everyone is stuck in their ways. And no one has time to do anything. There is still plenty of room to add value.
Just don’t fool yourself into thinking no one else could ever do it, too. That’s just silly.
In fact this paper is probably at least half stolen from ideas I have overheard from other people at the office.
(I plan on revising this at some point. Just a quick rant right now.)
The only two places where I see people sustaining advantages are not in tech. They are in trendiness, being a fad, or having a critical mass, like Google. Or out powering people by sheer number of lines of code that is in your software, and having the software deployed to customers providing you feedback, in a sense critical mass, like Microsoft.
And even then it is fleeting fads pass. And while you are so attached to all the code you have already written and leveraging your existing codebase you miss out on new opportunities. Or something?
