Strategist, author of 7 Powers
Hamilton Helmer wrote 7 Powers, a framework for identifying and developing sustainable competitive advantage. His test is that power requires a benefit and a barrier. The benefit gives you lower cost or higher price than competitors, and the barrier makes it impossible for anyone else to mimic. He calls it the to be or not to be test, and says founders should think about strategy even before product market fit.
Lenny's Podcast 00:48 06:04 13:10 29:15 29:41
Positioning
Adopt a superior business model the incumbent cannot copy without damaging its existing business.
that they're sequenced so almost every startup that you want to deal with starts with counter positioning, because remember what product market fit primarily is, it's substitution, it's you are coming up with a way to satisfy a more or less existing need in a novel way that creates more value.
Hamilton Helmer
says the durable win comes from a business model the incumbent cannot copy without damaging its existing business. The barrier is not the idea, it is the leader having something to lose by matching you.
positions you inside a market category buyers already understand, so they arrive with the right expectations and grasp your value in seconds. A position nobody has a frame for is a position you have to fund the education of.
7 Powers Framework
Seven sources of durable competitive advantage: counter-positioning, scale economies, switching costs, network economies, branding, process power, and cornered…
Action is the first principle of business
Strategy and planning matter, but ultimately execution and doing drive results
Business strategy with Hamilton Helmer (author of 7 Powers) 58:15
Operational excellence is not strategy - it's often imitable
True power requires both a benefit and a barrier. Operational improvements can be copied by competitors.
