Ask HN: Examples of SaaS Moats?

[feyndev]

I've been digging Warren Buffet and its appropriation of "moat" to describe competitive defense a business set up and grow over-time to prevent new market entrants to compete, or solidify a position.

A moat can be a strong and established brand like Coca-Cola or, if we take in marketplaces, AirBnB with their network effects.

When it comes to a white-label SaaS (for example, a simple accounting software) - how should we think about building and growing a moat?

[soulchild37]

imo having product founders / developers answering support questions is a super strong moat. I am surprised that many big SaaS just throw customers around with low tier outsourced support who don't actually know the product, or chatbot that just regurgitate the answer from FAQ page (which usually doesn't cover the customer use case), or worse, deliberately obscure link to get support in hope to reduce their customer support workload.

I run a few small SaaSes, and I try to reply customer email within 24 hours, and usually they are suprised / delighted by my response, and most stayed, or switched away from bigger competitor to mine, after initial enquiry to my app.

[verdverm]

Are any of Buffet's investments a while-label of some other product?

The moat is more likely the company that is being white-labelled, as the others cannot exist without it. So I would posit that any white-label SaaS has no possibility to have a moat. It will never reach the level where it matters, and by definition, their product is easily reproducible by another getting the same white-label deal.

My understanding of Buffet's strategy is that he invests in supply chain choke points and brands that people love and are likely never to go away, not "moats". He also doesn't really do tech investments afaik

[idoh]

Is your question about saas or white label saas? There are many saas moats, but I can’t think of any for white label saas.