YC CEO Garry Tan: โMoat is not a noun. Itโs a verbโ
Popular belief says startups win because they have one big, game-changing insight.
But Varun Mohan (Windsurf CEO) argues thatโs a myth.
โEvery single insight we have is a depreciating insight.โ
In other words: the value of your insight declines fast. Competitors catch up. Markets shift. What was once novel becomes table stakes.
He uses Nvidia as the example: Even at a trillion-dollar scale and 70% gross margins, they still have to innovate, or AMD catches up.
The real advantage?
Continuously generating new insights โ and executing on them.
โItโs not about the insight you had one year ago. Itโs whether you can compound that advantage over and over again.โ
Thatโs why Varun tells his team: being wrong is fine, but being stagnant isnโt. You need to stay sharp, learn from the market, and compound your edge over time.
Or as Garry Tan (YC CEO) puts it aptly:
โA moat is not a noun. Itโs a verb.โ
Video source:
@ycombinator (2025)