Do economic moats occur naturally or by accident? I had never contemplated this question till Andy Rachleff graciously emailed me back after I sent him my presentation on economic moats seeking his comments about two weeks ago. Why did I email Andy? That’s a great question. In early 2010, when it started becoming clear that we […]
Tag Archives | Switching Costs
“Liking” Facebook’s Business Model – The #EconomicMoats Remix
By Brian Laung Aoaeh on March 10, 2016 in Business Models, Case Studies, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Intellectual Explorations, Startups, Strategy, Technology, Venture Capital
Note: I published “Liking” Facebook’s Business Model on December 26, 20011 at Tekedia. This article updates that discussion by incorporating developments since then. It also folds in discussion of the economic moats that Facebook has developed around its business. Large segments of this article are exactly identical to the post that was published by Tekedia […]
Connecting The Dots: Economic Moats & Early Stage Technology Startups
By Brian Laung Aoaeh on February 5, 2016 in Business Models, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Investment Thesis, Management, Startups, Strategy, Technology, Venture Capital
I started writing about economic moats in September 2014. Since then I have written about Network Effects, Switching Costs, Intangibles, and Efficient Scale and Cost Advantages. The purpose of those posts was to outline how I think about economic moats while I am studying a seed stage startup and trying to determine how things might unfold […]
Notes on Strategy; For Early Stage Technology Startups
Alternate Title: What Can 24’s Jack Bauer Teach a Tech Startup Founder About Strategy? Running a business without a strategy is like breathing air without oxygen. The purpose of this blog post is to attempt to synthesize certain fundamental lessons on strategy that are relevant for anyone trying to build a business.1 As part of […]
Case Study: Fab – How Did That Happen?
By Brian Laung Aoaeh on November 27, 2014 in Business Models, Case Studies, Entrepreneurship, Funding, Innovation, Venture Capital
Recent reports in the press about the problems Fab is facing got me thinking about the lessons one might learn from its meteoric rise and spectacular crash. Professional investors always give this disclaimer; Past performance does not necessarily guarantee or predict future results. Similarly, Fab’s experience is not necessarily a precedent that will always be […]
Revisiting What I Know About Switching Costs & Startups
By Brian Laung Aoaeh on October 24, 2014 in Business Models, How and Why, Innovation, Startups, Technology, Venture Capital
Switching costs are another aspect of a startup’s business model that I pay attention to. Together with Network Effect, Intangibles, Cost Advantages, and Efficient Scale they form the source of economic moats.1 In this post I will discuss switching costs; what they are, how they develop and evolve, and how switching costs can help or […]