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A comment on Y Combinator's Essential Startup Advice – Michael Seibel [video]. Parent comment

Re:Y Combinator's Essential Startup Advice – Michael Seibel ... by keerthiko on Wednesday May 01, 2019 @02:50AM (#19795078)
IMO, the optimal self-serving but long-term-benevolent tech pioneer should go the Bill Gates route -- after a significant disruption, invest in moats during a medium length career(20-30 years), and then divest from the industry and pursue philanthropy. Microsoft's moats have been opened up and now allow many other players to disrupt in their former core industries, and Bill doesn't care anymore

Today's tech are the dark ages of tech moats, because it's also the golden age of internet and technology innovation -- but anyone building anything promising gets gobbled up by the same 4-5 FAANG+ giants. I worry that these tech moats will not go away even when their founders transition with billions of dollars in the bank, leaving the next generation of creators to have to expend half their energy filling these moats before they can disrupt anything.

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Re:Y Combinator's Essential Startup Advice – Michael Seibel ... by dclusin on Wednesday May 01, 2019 @01:03PM (#19799175)
> Microsoft's moats have been opened up and now allow many other players to disrupt in their former core industries

Microsoft seems to be adopting the cloud just fine. They've managed to keep office modern and relevant. Xbox as a platform is still doing well. Windows is still the default OS for desktops; less people are using desktops tho. Microsoft is facing competition sure, and maybe their monopoly on desktops isn't as valuable as it once was. But it seems to me they certainly aren't headed for the mothball fleet anytime soon.

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