Distribution is rented attention
Most “distribution advantages” are leases on someone else’s audience, and leases get repriced.
the landlord reads your numbers too
trying to answer →Does distribution matter more than technology?What is a moat in an AI world?
When people say a startup has distribution, they usually mean it has found a cheap way to reach people through someone else’s surface: a search engine, an app store, a feed, a marketplace. That is real, but it is a lease, and the landlord reads the same numbers you do.
The distribution that behaves like a moat is the kind you own: an audience that comes directly, a sales relationship, a default setting inside a customer’s workflow. As building gets cheaper, I expect the gap between rented and owned distribution to become the most important line on a startup’s balance sheet that isn’t on its balance sheet.