BRAVE: The Startup 10x Strategy and the Moats That Keep You Winning - E645
"Many people use ChatGPT for marketing because instead of hiring someone for 60,000 dollars a year, they can pay 600 dollars a year for AI that delivers equivalent quality, creating a 100x cost difference as companies choose AI SaaS over hiring a fresh graduate for marketing." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast
"Starlink customers grew sharply from 2020 to 2024 because many regions still lack good internet, making Starlink a 10x better product with stronger speed, reliability, and access, and this improvement in coverage and quality raises the possibility that users may eventually choose Starlink over local telcos like SingTel or M1 since paying the same subscription price could provide global roaming anywhere once enough satellites are deployed, which is why traditional telcos are increasingly concerned about this shift in how people may choose their future phone access." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast
"Airbnb created more value than Uber and Lyft for every dollar raised because as a sharing economy platform the more people who use Airbnb the more apartments become available and the more people continue to use it, which makes the company far more capital efficient by generating roughly a 10x return relative to the funding it raised compared to Uber and Lyft which produced only about 2 to 3x, and although Uber is larger with more funding and Lyft is smaller with lower market share and valuation, Airbnb stands out for creating significantly more value for each dollar invested." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast
Jeremy Au outlines why founders must choose a single 10x advantage and commit to it. He explains how products win by being better or faster or cheaper than the status quo and why unfair advantages are required to defend that lead. He also highlights the Southeast Asian invention of the USB thumb drive as a case where a first mover delivered a better experience but still lost when fast followers and scale overtook them.