Check Your Moat
What stops someone from copying this tomorrow? Be honest.
Write down the thing you're protecting — your position, your business, your advantage. Now ask: What stops someone from replicating this? Write the specific barriers. If the honest answer is "nothing" or "just that we got here first," your position is indefensible. Identify one action you can take this week to deepen the moat.
You're assessing the durability of a competitive position — your own or someone else's.
You're in an early exploratory phase where building a moat is premature and speed matters more than defensibility.
Why it works
Most advantages are temporary unless actively defended. Identifying whether your position is defensible — and what specifically makes it so — prevents the complacency that comes from confusing a head start with a moat.
An advantage without a moat is a head start with an expiry date. Someone will copy your product, match your price, replicate your process. The question is what makes your position specifically difficult to replicate. Network effects — your product grows more valuable as more people use it. Switching costs — leaving is more painful than staying. Accumulated knowledge — built through experience, impossible to buy. Brand trust — built over years, can’t be shortcut. Cost structure — profitable at a price point others can’t sustain. If none apply, you don’t have a moat. You have a window. Know the difference and act accordingly.