Startup Moats
December 8, 2025
Watch now | Today, we’re talking about a startup’s “moat” or competitive advantage. An investor usually has to believe that your competitive advantage is different enough for customers to care and is defensible.
Today we’re talking about if it’s ok to start your company using freelance engineers? Of course many entrepreneurs do not code and may not have coders in their network, so hiring freelancers to build an MVP and then fundraise is a very common approach.
But does it work?
Well, if your product doesn’t require new and innovative engineering, and should not be that hard to build. Then it might be ok. It won’t be easy but you can make it happen.
However, if you are trying to build something new and unsolved, hiring freelancers will rarely work. As you likely need experts committed for the long term.
Also remember, rightly or wrongly, investors tend to favor teams with technical co-founders.
