Protectable Advantage?

In a post today on VentureBeat, David Goldenberg addresses one of our favorite topics, what he calls "Protectable Advantage."


The term is often used by investors when asking technology start-ups whether they have some intellectual property protection on their ideas or a secret process unavailable to competitors.


Goldenberg's advice?


"So what should you tell potential investors who want to know what your company’s protectable edge is? Ask them what Facebook’s protectable edge is. Or Twitter’s. Or any of the myriad other startups that are successful not because they’re the only ones doing something but because they do it better than everyone else does."


This kind of thinking applies not only to early-stage companies but to all, in our opinion. The hardest thing for competitors to copy should not be your technology but your organization. The right talents, working together effectively, focused on the right mission is very difficult to match quickly or easily.