{"id":524,"date":"2025-08-15T15:48:41","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alaskansawmill.com\/?p=524"},"modified":"2025-08-21T13:16:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T13:16:00","slug":"the-gtm-moat-series-in-ai-brand-is-the-foundation-of-your-moat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.alaskansawmill.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/the-gtm-moat-series-in-ai-brand-is-the-foundation-of-your-moat\/","title":{"rendered":"The GTM Moat Series: In AI, Brand is the Foundation of Your Moat"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hello and welcome to The GTMnow Newsletter \u2013 the media brand of VC firm, GTMfund<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This is Part 1 of a Series on how to build your GTM moat.<\/em><\/p>\n You stayed up all weekend building your AI product. In AI, your tech is no longer your moat. Before the AI tidal wave, before OpenAI hit 100 million users in two months, and before \u201cwrapper fatigue\u201d became a meme, we built GTMfund\u2019s thesis:<\/p>\n Distribution is the final remaining moat.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n We believe the next generation of iconic B2B companies will be built on superior distribution and execution.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n These have been and will continue to be the first and second slides (after the title slide) of our fund decks:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n <\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n Writing a piece on brand being a moat feels inevitable. It\u2019s been a core belief from the beginning, and will only continue to increase in importance.<\/p>\n These slides have remained that way for over four years. The case is only stronger:<\/p>\n LLMs are commoditized.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Features are copied in a weekend.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Competition is infinite, attention is scarce.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Fundraising is hot again \u2013 $100B+ in AI funding in 2024 alone.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n Plus, a handful of AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic alone raising tens of billions of dollars.<\/p>\n The paradox? So what do you do when your tech moat evaporates?<\/p>\n You build a distribution moat, and brand is the foundation.<\/p>\n The companies that break out (even in crowded, commoditized markets) do so because they craft a clear Promise, a distinct Personality, and a visible, credible set of People behind the product.<\/p>\n This is Part 1 of a Series on how to build your GTM moat.<\/p>\n Some of the most iconic companies in the world demonstrate the impact of brand by building it as a strategy. <\/p>\n Steve Jobs understood this better than anyone. When he returned to Apple in the late 1990s, the company was bloated and sliding negatively. His first move was to focus on rebuilding the brand from its core.<\/p>\n \u201cMarketing is about values,\u201d<\/em> he told the team. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us\u2026 So we have to be really clear about what we want them to know about us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Elon Musk took a different route, but with the same intent.<\/p>\n \u201cBrand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Tesla famously spent $0 on advertising in its early years. Instead, Musk focused on making the product so good that customers would do the distribution for him. In his world, brand wasn\u2019t something you bought, it was something you earned by exceeding expectations and trusting that perception would follow reality.<\/p>\n Jeff Bezos, meanwhile, framed brand as something you can\u2019t directly control \u2013 only earn.<\/p>\n \u201cYour brand is what people say about you when you\u2019re not in the room.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n At Amazon, that meant optimizing for customer trust from the very beginning. Fast delivery, obsessive support, and relentless convenience weren\u2019t just operational decisions, they were brand investments. If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.<\/p>\n And Marc Benioff? He built Salesforce on a single belief: that trust is the foundation of everything.<\/p>\n \u201cTrust has to be your highest value. If it\u2019s not, something bad is going to happen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Salesforce proved that it was reliable with real-time status dashboards and a cultural mandate to make customer success the company\u2019s core product.<\/p>\n Across all of these examples, the pattern is clear: We\u2019re not talking about logos, fonts, or a Notion doc full of adjectives. We\u2019re talking about brand as a day-zero tactical lever for:<\/p>\n Distribution<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Retention<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Trust<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Differentiation<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Defensibility<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n The value is obvious at these later-stage companies, but also echoed across the earliest stages. Take this example from a startup that has been growing astronomically, Default<\/a>:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n After working with hundreds of early-stage startups, we\u2019ve seen that breakout companies (especially in AI) build brand on three foundational pillars.<\/p>\n This is your biggest wedge. It\u2019s the specific, repeatable, urgent outcome you deliver (not a vague mission statement).<\/p>\n A clear promise creates a repeatable narrative, both internally and externally. It drives word-of-mouth, champion enablement, and homepage copy.<\/p>\n Take these examples from companies as inspiration:<\/p>\n Gong:<\/em> Turn customer conversations into strategic growth.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Loom:<\/em> Faster than typing. Built for hybrid teams.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Linear:<\/em> The issue tracker you\u2019ll actually enjoy using.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Your tone, visuals, motion design, and UX are the emotional layers that makes your product memorable and human.<\/p>\n Take these examples from companies as inspiration:<\/p>\n Notion:<\/em> Calm, sophisticated, precise<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Superhuman:<\/em> Intense, elite, high-performance<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Webflow:<\/em> Creative, empowering, competent<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n To build this, choose 3\u20135 adjectives. Build every detail \u2013 from loading states to error messages \u2013 around them. That\u2019s how you build emotional differentiation at scale.<\/p>\n Early users don\u2019t trust the product, they trust you.<\/p>\n Your brand is a reflection of the founding team\u2019s credibility, point of view, and proximity to the problem. In AI, where everything feels abstract, being visible, human, and intentional helps create that moat.<\/p>\n Take these examples from companies as inspiration:<\/p>\n Descript:<\/em> Andrew Mason brought quirky creativity and media fluency.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Webflow:<\/em> Vlad Magdalin made bootstrapping and belief central to the narrative.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Loom:<\/em> Joe Thomas turned product updates into a community conversation.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Meet your customers where they are.<\/p>\n Every founder thread, podcast, and product video is a brand artifact. Don\u2019t treat them as \u201cmarketing,\u201d treat them as moat-building assets.<\/p>\n Get the team aligned on:<\/p>\n Promise:<\/em> Who\u2019s it for? What urgent outcome do we deliver?<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Personality:<\/em> What does it feel like to use us?<\/p>\n<\/li>\n People:<\/em> Why are we the team to solve this?<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Create a one-page cheat sheet for every GTM and UX decision.<\/p>\n Your UI is your brand and the most defensible expression of your identity.<\/p>\n Take these examples from companies as inspiration:<\/p>\n Perplexity\u2019s citations:<\/em> Proof of accuracy baked into every result.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Midjourney\u2019s Discord UI:<\/em> Feels like a live creative lab.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Runway\u2019s dark mode aesthetic:<\/em> Signals sophistication and professionalism.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Even your microcopy (from loading bars to 404s) should reinforce your voice.<\/p>\n Content is your brand in motion. Use it to show<\/em> your brand.<\/p>\n An effective way of doing this is through \u201cIP\u201d data \u2013 data that is unique to your company. Gong has over $300M ARR<\/a> and pioneered this with Gong Labs.<\/p>\n They turned proprietary data from millions of sales calls into a repeatable content engine. This created evergreen insights that fuel authority, awareness, and trust across the entire sales ecosystem.<\/p>\n Every post reinforces their core brand promise: this is the place to go for truth in sales.<\/p>\n Other companies are effectively running this playbook also, like Carta. They get hundreds of thousands of likes, comments, and reposts on posts like this<\/a>. The proprietary data they use for their content demonstrates depth and domain ownership that others can\u2019t replicate.<\/p>\n Carta\u2019s playbook for viral data storytelling can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The founder is the first and most powerful brand channel.<\/p>\n Share product decisions and GTM learnings.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Document the early journey \u2014 wins and stumbles.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Be the narrative before anyone else defines it for you.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Founders who build in public attract talent, trust, and traction. If you haven\u2019t read Founder Brand by Dave Gerhardt<\/a>, this is a masterclass in founder-led brand building.<\/p>\n Not everyone needs to operate at Elon Musk\u2019s pace (nearly 100 tweets per day) but it proves just how valuable owning the narrative can be when building in public.<\/p>\n Your tech will be cloned. But the promise you make, the feeling you create, and the trust you earn \u2013 that\u2019s your moat. And it\u2019s built from Day Zero.<\/p>\n
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You launch Monday. By Wednesday, there are five clones.
One has your tagline, two raised a Seed round.
None feel like yours.<\/p>\n
Distribution is your moat, and brand is the foundation of it. Go-to-market is the engine that drives it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s never been easier to ship.
It\u2019s never been harder to build something that sticks.<\/p>\nBrand is a strategy<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Brand is what you build, show, and prove \u2013 from the very beginning.
It drives distribution, fuels retention, and builds trust. Brand becomes your most defensible moat.<\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n
The 3 pillars of a defensible early-stage brand<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. The Promise (what you do)<\/h3>\n
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2. The Personality (how it feels)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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3. The People (who you are)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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The Day-Zero brand playbook<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Step 1: Run the \u201cbrand pillars sprint\u201d<\/h3>\n
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Step 2: Bake brand into product UX<\/h3>\n
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Step 3: Use content as proof<\/h3>\n
Step 4: Founder as Chief Brand Officer<\/h3>\n
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The only thing they can\u2019t copy<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Your features will be matched.
Your pricing will be undercut.<\/p>\n
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