The Only Real Moat in AI: Speed

Why Speed Is the Only Moat Left in AI and Startups

This Isn’t a Typical Post (But I Think It’s Important)

Typically, I write technical analyses, breakdowns, and implementation ideas. Today’s post is a little different. It’s more of a thought I’ve been sitting with, one I keep repeating to founders, builders, and myself.

If you like (or don’t like) this type of note, hit the like button or leave a quick comment. That way, I’ll know whether to share more of these in the future.

The Only Real Moat Left: Speed

Lots of people keep asking me:

“How do I build a moat in today’s AI-everywhere world?”

My answer is simple: speed of execution.

OpenAI took Codex from idea to public product in seven weeks. Eight engineers. Zero quarterly-planning detours.

Replit’s AI agent once nuked a customer’s production database. The team pulled an all-nighter, restored the data, and shipped new guardrails, all within 24 hours.

On the funding side, Dharmesh Shah jumped on a Sunday Zoom with Lovable founder Anton Osika and wired the check Monday morning.

Even the giants get it. Google and Meta are scooping up top AI talent in 48–72 hours. No red tape, just action.

For every one of these success stories, there’s another team killing ideas faster than slower teams can finish their pitch decks. That’s product velocity, deal velocity, hiring velocity, compounding quietly while others complain that “AI is too crowded.”

At Haptik, we had a rule:
Inaction is worse than failure.
In 2025, inaction isn’t just worse, it’s lethal.

If your AI idea needs 4–5 months of “alignment etc.” before users can touch it, someone faster has already eaten your lunch.

So let’s build.

Drop the overthinking. Quit waiting for permission. Ship something today.
Then learn, iterate, and ship again.