Authenticity is your new moat
For a long time, engineering was an important part of winning in tech.
If your product was faster, cheaper, or more capable, you usually had an edge. In the early days, engineering quality mattered a lot. Better infrastructure, better systems, and better features often helped companies move ahead. As engineers, we like this phase because it feels closer to merit.
But this phase never lasts.
Over time, technology becomes available to everyone. Open source models, cloud platforms, APIs, frameworks, and now AI have made it easy to build almost anything. The advantage of pure engineering slowly disappears.
That’s when the game shifts to distribution.
Distribition becomes the moat. It becomes less about building the best product and more about reaching users faster. Many average products became big companies simply because they cracked distribution. This is where most SaaS and AI startups are today.
But distribution also gets crowded. Every channel is full. Everyone is doing outbound. Everyone is running ads. Everyone is posting on LinkedIn. The same playbooks are used everywhere. Going viral once doesn’t build a company anymore.
So the real question is: how do you stick? How do you stay relevant when users have endless choices? My belief is simple.
Authenticity becomes your new moat.
Not branding. Not launch videos. Not fancy words. Real authenticity. Standing for something clear and showing it everywhere.
Being authentic is not a marketing exercise. It is how the company operates. It shows up in design, culture, product decisions, customer support, hiring, and communication. Pretty much everything.
If you say you care about quality, I should feel it in your product.
If you say you are customer-first, I should feel it in your support.
If you say you are ambitious, I should see it in the risks you take.
If you say you are human, I should see it in how you treat people.
Everything has to match. This is hard work. Much harder than shipping features. But this is what builds trust.
People don’t remember every update you ship. They remember how your product made them feel. Thoughtful or careless. Calm or chaotic. Reliable or confusing. Those things stay.
Look at Patagonia, IKEA, Nike, and Apple.
Patagonia doesn’t just sell jackets. They stand for environmental responsibility. They even tell customers to buy less.
IKEA doesn’t sell luxury furniture. They sell affordable, practical living. From flat-pack boxes to store layouts, everything supports that idea.
Nike doesn’t just sell shoes. They sell discipline and ambition.
Apple doesn’t just sell devices. They sell simplicity and taste.
That’s why people don’t just use these brands. They connect with them.
Tech companies are slowly entering this phase. Software is now part of daily life. Work tools, finance apps, communication platforms, and AI products. When you become part of someone’s routine, you cannot be shallow anymore. You need alignment.
Tech started with code. Then it moved to growth. Now it is moving to character.The companies that win won’t be the loudest. They will be the ones where the product, the story, and the behaviour make sense together.
That is authenticity. And that is your new moat.
Personally, as someone who has spent years building systems and products, this is the part I find most exciting now, building companies that don’t just work well, but earn trust.