Competitors would simply alert clients to a security threat, leaving them to investigate. eSentire differentiated by handling the entire incident response: investigating the threat, kicking out the attacker, and providing an "all clear." This deeper service commitment was their key competitive advantage.

The founders initially feared their data collection hardware would be easily copied. However, they discovered the true challenge and defensible moat lay in scaling the full-stack system—integrating hardware iterations, data pipelines, and training loops. The unexpected difficulty of this process created a powerful competitive advantage.

The best investment returns in cybersecurity will come from startups tackling security for emerging technologies. New attack surfaces, such as those from Agentic AI, represent a 'blue sky problem' where a startup can build a category-defining company without facing incumbents.

The ideal founder archetype starts with deep technical expertise and product sense. They then develop exceptional business and commercial acumen over time, a rarer and more powerful combination than a non-technical founder learning the product.

In the AI era, where technology can be replicated quickly, the true moat is a founder's credibility and network built over decades. This "unfair advantage" enables faster sales cycles with trusted buyers, creating a first-mover advantage that is difficult for competitors to overcome.

Huntress discovered that simply finding threats wasn't enough for its MSP customers, who lacked specialized cybersecurity staff for remediation. The product had to evolve into a fully managed, human-powered service that handled the problem end-to-end, moving from alerts to a 'click a button to fix' solution.

While technical founders excel at finding an initial AI product wedge, domain-expert founders may be better positioned for long-term success. Their deep industry knowledge provides an intuitive roadmap for the company's "second act": expanding the product, aligning ecosystem incentives, and building defensibility beyond the initial tool.

Unlike traditional tech, founders in the American Dynamism space often succeed because of their deep, first-hand understanding of the customer (e.g., government, military). Many have prior service, hold security clearances, or have sold to government before. This "customer intimacy" allows them to speak the language and navigate complex procurement, a crucial advantage.

The skills developed as an intelligence officer—understanding mission goals, risks, operator needs, and coordinating across diverse teams—directly translate to the cross-functional responsibilities of a product manager who must align sales, marketing, and engineering.