The GTM Moat Collection: Distribution is the Remaining Moat

22 November 2025

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That is Half II of a collection on the way to construct your GTM moat. Yow will discover Half I on model right here.

In AI, your product received’t be your moat for lengthy — your go-to-market might be. Options get copied in days, hype cycles burn quick, and benchmarks have skyrocketed. Distribution has turn into the ultimate remaining moat, and founders who acknowledge this from Day 0 are those breaking out.

Within the newest GTM Deconstructed collection, we deconstructed Gamma’s go-to-market. Their superior distribution significantly credited to their creator-first technique was a catalyst of their exponential development.

It’s additionally the explanation we’re seeing ecosystem-led development is gaining in significance and momentum. Ecosystem companions play key roles in distribution.

The founder’s journey has at all times adopted two easy guidelines:

No prospects, no enterprise
No development, no capital

Whereas these guidelines haven’t modified, however the supply of defensibility has. At the moment, the bar is far increased.

Trying on the benchmarks from companies like a16z, the pattern is obvious. Essentially the most profitable Gen AI founders will not be simply constructing product, they’re constructing distribution in parallel with their product. The outcomes are outstanding:

The brand new benchmark for elite startups is hitting $1M in ARR in underneath 9 months.
The yr after, they’re almost tripling in dimension, with 192% annual development.
They accomplish this with unprecedented capital effectivity, usually working with a Burn A number of under 1.0, which means they generate greater than a greenback of recent income for each greenback of money they burn.

Pace + effectivity = defensibility.
And defensibility as we speak = distribution.

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Meaning you may’t afford to attend. Your GTM moat must be constructed from the founding moments of the corporate.

Distribution vs. Go-to-Market: know the distinction

First, it’s essential to grasp what distribution means and the way it matches into the larger go-to-market technique.

Distribution is your system of channels for persistently reaching your goal prospects and turning them into paying customers. Consider it because the pathways your product travels to get right into a buyer’s fingers. These pathways can embody: direct gross sales, content material, partnerships, group, and extra. Distribution solutions the query: “How will we get our product in entrance of the proper folks, time and again?
Go-to-market (GTM). Distribution is a vital element inside a GTM technique. GTM is the complete blueprint: who you’re promoting to, your pricing, your messaging, and which distribution channels you’ll use to win.

Why an excellent product isn’t sufficient

As buyers, we see corporations with strong merchandise get overwhelmed by rivals with superior distribution on a regular basis.

A superior distribution technique can beat a comparable (and even barely higher) product. It occurs on a regular basis.

Gong vs. Clari is the traditional instance. The merchandise had been comparable, however Gong’s aggressive go-to-market execution and highly effective model made them the undisputed chief. They didn’t win on characteristic velocity, they received by constructing a GTM moat that locked in consciousness, belief, and class authority. They outlined your entire class and framed their competitor as a reduction various.

That is accelerating in AI. A startup can generate huge early buzz, solely to be lapped months later by a competitor who nails a particular viral loop or channel extra successfully. In as we speak’s market, the corporate that reaches the client greatest usually wins.

All of it comes all the way down to a shift in mindset. One of the best founders deal with distribution as a core a part of their product from day one, not as an issue to resolve later. They construct a playbook earlier than they even rent a gross sales group.

Right here’s what that playbook appears like in motion.

The “one channel” playbook

The founders who nail distribution early don’t attempt to be all over the place. They discover one, perhaps two, channels and completely crush them by constructing a playbook that’s extremely particular to their prospects.

Instance 1 we’ve seen: An organization promoting to HVAC homeowners discovered their prospects weren’t on LinkedIn; they had been in area of interest Fb teams. The founders embedded themselves in these communities, shared trade-specific memes, and have become admins. They constructed authority from the within out, making a pipeline that felt genuine, not transactional.
Instance 2 we’ve seen: One other founder recognized the second hottest podcast of their vertical. As a substitute of simply shopping for advertisements, they introduced the host on as an advisor for a small quantity of fairness. In a single day, that podcast grew to become a trusted, natural lead-generation channel that no quantity of selling spend may have replicated.

There are a whole lot of different examples too.

Discovering your “one channel” isn’t a advertising and marketing downside; it’s a customer-understanding downside. In case you don’t know the place your prospects dwell, you don’t know them nicely sufficient but.

The proper channel is a direct reflection of your buyer’s day by day actuality.

Are you promoting to restaurant homeowners? They dwell on the telephone, not of their e-mail inbox. Your playbook is looking them straight.
Focusing on pharma leaders? They’re on LinkedIn, attempting to determine how AI will impression their trade. Your playbook is to turn into the go-to thought chief answering that precise query.

It begins with buyer specificity. Discover out the place they spend their time, what they fear about, and who they belief. Then, construct a method to fulfill them there in a method that gives instant worth.

A 5-step framework for locating your channel

Right here is an easy, five-step framework for locating and profitable your first distribution channel.

1. Grow to be an skilled in your buyer

Go deeper than demographics. You should obsessively perceive your buyer’s world. The place do they spend their time on-line and offline? Who do they belief for recommendation? What podcasts do they take heed to on their commute? How do they really make shopping for selections?

2. Discover your enviornment

As soon as you realize the place they’re, discover an enviornment the place you may realistically win. It doesn’t should be an undiscovered channel, but it surely ought to be a spot the place rivals are weak or your distinctive method can minimize by means of the noise.

3. Craft your hook

You want a compelling worth proposition tailor-made particularly for that channel. This isn’t your advertising and marketing tagline; it’s the “hook” that may seize their consideration in that context. For Zoco, the hook was exhibiting med spas the precise search quantity they had been lacking.

4. Ship in-channel worth

Present distinctive worth inside the channel itself, earlier than asking for something in return. Create a high-signal group, supply proprietary information, or share extremely related insights. Give them a motive to concentrate.

5. Go all-in, then broaden

As soon as a playbook works, double down till you see diminishing returns. Grasp it and personal it. Solely then must you start to diversify.

A typical query is whether or not it’s higher to go the place nobody else is. Not essentially. The purpose isn’t to seek out an empty channel, it’s to discover a channel the place you may win.

Typically which means coming into a crowded house however with a extra artistic and particular method. Whereas your rivals are preventing over broad key phrases, you may win by dominating a distinct segment Fb group, proudly owning a hyper-local search time period, or turning into the go-to authority at a small trade occasion.

The query isn’t “the place can I be first?” however “the place can my distinctive method permit me to construct authority the quickest?”

The carrot and the stick

Finally, this creates a traditional carrot-and-stick situation for founders.

The Stick: The expectations for development are increased and sooner than ever earlier than. You possibly can now not afford to determine your go-to-market technique after you’ve constructed your product. A pointy, deliberate plan for distribution from day one is now a requirement for survival.
The Carrot: You might have extra highly effective instruments, information, and inventive channels at your disposal than any technology of founders earlier than you. Small, scrappy groups can now run performs that used to require Collection B funding and a full advertising and marketing division.

The businesses who win on this period might be those that see this actuality clearly. They may determine one high-impact channel early on and execute on it with relentless focus.

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