One piece of advice that is often cited in startup land is the idea & importance of building a monopoly or a moat strategy.
I get it. The desire to build something defensible and durable for the ages requires something that suggests you can withstand competition.
But in the software/tech world it is immensely difficult, if not impossible to build a monopoly. There are just too many creative entreprenuers and talented people to build an everlasting moat.
Throughout my career, I find myself drawn to founders less interested in building a monopoly and more drawn to founders with exceptional and extraordinary taste. It’s rare but when you see it, well, it takes your breath away. In fact, I think taste is one of the most under appreciated attributes of a product inspired founder.
Steve Jobs calling Microsoft out for a lack of taste back in 1995 sums up the point:
“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste, and I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their product.”
There are no text book ways to develop great taste. It doesn’t come from countless A/B testing or cloning some successful feature in another app. It often is derived from a some unique combination of vision and talent. And always comes from the heart.