BUILDER NOTES
When everyone has the same tools, leverage moves elsewhere
If everyone rides bicycles and only you have a car, the car is leverage. If everyone has a car, the car is no longer leverage.
A note on what startups can still own when tools become common.
Old leverage
Land, people, energy, and money were early sources of power.
Technology era
Software access was once a major asymmetry.
Common tools
When everyone has the same tool, the tool is less asymmetric.
Perspective leverage
Seeing what others miss becomes more important.
In earlier eras, land, people, and energy were forms of leverage. In the modern era, technology became one of the strongest forms. Underneath all of them sits money, the larger leverage that lets those things be traded.
In the software era, access to technology became a powerful edge. Venture dollars chased products where software could create nonlinear growth, and capital concentrated around the few people who could build or access that technology.
What happens when everyone has the car
We are now entering a period where more of that technology is available to everyone. When access can be monopolized, access itself is leverage. When everyone gets the tool, that leverage fades.
If everyone rides bicycles and only you have a car, the car is leverage. If everyone has a car, the car is no longer leverage.
If everyone has the same tool, leverage no longer comes from owning it. It comes from seeing the problem others miss, entering markets others cannot reach, and changing behavior others cannot change.
A startup can still own a point of view. If the point of view is specific, true enough, and executed fast, it can still become leverage.