Ariel Cohen, founder of Navan, neutralizes future competition by actively trying to disrupt his own business. He invests in a separate, internal team tasked with creating the "Nirvana inside a Nirvana"—the next-generation product that will make the current one obsolete, ensuring he always owns the future of his category.
By instructing employees to treat customers like their own parents, Devoted Health creates an unbreakable bond of loyalty. This seemingly soft strategy is actually ruthless; it effectively removes satisfied customers from the available market, making it impossible for competitors to poach them, even with lower prices. Love becomes a powerful competitive moat.
Instead of just stating customer obsession, Love Every's founder, Jessica Rolfe, had investors experience it. She turned off the lights and had them read positive customer reviews for five minutes, a powerful and non-traditional way to demonstrate a product's deep emotional connection with its users.