It seems like VC funding is the real key to changing the calculus. If you get as much money as Elastic did, you damn well start digging that moat and get to monetizing.
Exactly! VC funding has its place, but it also greatly restricts the types of outcomes that are favorable.
I mean, in our case, we're building a geocoder. We'd have to raise, no exaggeration, tens of billions to build a moat considering the current market leader is Google. There's no way to guarantee that outcome.
On the other hand, there is _so_ much room left after Google for other companies if they don't have to get massive. There's room for us, and at least a dozen other companies I know of that have their own take on geocoding that their own customers appreciate.
The VC funding is what appears to introduce it, but really it should be there from the start. By that I mean VC funding forces the founders to consider that simply having a viable project does not mean you have a viable product, but founders who don't realize that are on a path to this destination already before the VC turns up, the VC just accelerates it.
I mean, in our case, we're building a geocoder. We'd have to raise, no exaggeration, tens of billions to build a moat considering the current market leader is Google. There's no way to guarantee that outcome.
On the other hand, there is _so_ much room left after Google for other companies if they don't have to get massive. There's room for us, and at least a dozen other companies I know of that have their own take on geocoding that their own customers appreciate.