Business strategy with Hamilton Helmer (author of 7 Powers)

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Warren Buffett famously said in Business, I look for economic castles protected by unbreachable moats.

**Hamilton Helmer** (0:04)
Power requires a benefit and a barrier, so he's taking care of the benefit part by saying a castle. You have to have a pretty good understanding of why it's a castle and not a shack.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (0:15)
So in a lot of decks, it's like, oh, we have the most amazing team, we move the fastest. You mentioned how rarely is that actually a power.

**Hamilton Helmer** (0:20)
You're on a treadmill, and if you'd stop running that treadmill, you get creeped, but it's not power. The things that drive operational excellence can be mimicked.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (0:30)
Let's actually talk about achieving these powers.

**Hamilton Helmer** (0:32)
There's a thing called power progression. There are times when certain types of power are available. The path to power is where the rubber meets the road.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (0:43)
Today, my guest is Hamilton Helmer. Hamilton is a legend in the world of strategy. He's the author of 7 Powers, which outlines a framework for identifying and developing sustainable competitive advantage. It is widely considered to be the best book on strategy. And people like Patrick Hallson, Peter Thiel, Reed Hastings, Daniel Ek, and so many more leaders credit the book and Hamilton's teachings for helping them build durable, lasting companies. In our conversation, Hamilton shares what sources of power startups can start developing early, which types of power companies often think they have, but they don't, how power relates to strategy and moats, when to start thinking about power as a startup, and also what individual product managers and non-leaders can do about these insights about power, also how Hamilton sees AI impacting various entry and the sources of power. He also gives a preview of his new book that he is working on currently, and so much more. With that, I bring you Hamilton Helmer after a short word from our sponsors. And if you enjoy this podcast, don't forget to subscribe and follow it in your favorite podcasting app or YouTube. It's the best way to avoid missing future episodes and it helps the podcast tremendously.
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Hamilton Helmer, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to the podcast.

**Hamilton Helmer** (4:11)
Hi Lenny, a pleasure to be here.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (4:13)
It's even more my pleasure. I wanna start by talking about when power becomes important.
When do you recommend founders start thinking about power in terms of pre-product market fit, post-product market fit? Is it worth spending time thinking about power early? Obviously it's good to think about a little bit, but how much and how seriously should founders be thinking about it before they found something that people actually want?

**Hamilton Helmer** (4:38)
One of the things that has really surprised me in the last five years has been that my understanding of the answer to that question has changed.