1
Domo
Business intelligence
Running on inertia. The BI market has consolidated around Tableau, Power BI, and Looker and Domo has no structural moat.
Distribution
Now
Exposed
2
Dropbox
Cloud storage & collaboration
Running entirely on inertia against bundled competition. No structural moat remaining.
Distribution
Now
Exposed
3
monday.com
Work management software
Pure distribution play. Asana, ClickUp, Notion, and Linear offer near-identical feature sets. An agent can replace the entire product category.
Distribution
Now
Adapting
4
Slack
Team messaging
Bundled by Microsoft Teams for most enterprises — Slack is fighting a distribution war against a product that costs nothing extra.
Network
Now
Adapting
5
Zendesk
Customer support software
AI agents are replacing the core workflow Zendesk was built around — ticket-based human support is the thing being disrupted.
Data
Now
Adapting
6
Zoom
Video conferencing
The verb became the product, then the incumbents caught up. Zoom is now a distribution story fighting bundled competitors on every front.
Network
Now
Adapting
7
HubSpot
Marketing & CRM
A distribution and brand company — the blog is the moat, not the product.
Distribution
~2 yrs
Neutral
8
Klaviyo
Marketing automation
The per-brand intelligence compounds over time, but Klaviyo is deeply exposed to AI-native email tools that can bootstrap from smaller datasets.
Data
~2 yrs
Adapting
9
Qualtrics
Experience management
The benchmarks are valuable but the core survey product is highly commoditised — SurveyMonkey and free tools do 80% of what most users need.
Data
~2 yrs
Adapting
10
Shopify
Ecommerce platform
The software can be rebuilt for $200. What remains is the merchant network and the financial infrastructure sitting underneath it.
Distribution
~2 yrs
Adapting
11
Salesforce
CRM software
A distribution and lock-in company that agents will erode from below as they automate the workflows Salesforce was built to manage.
Workflow
~2 yrs
Adapting
12
Figma
Design software
Deep collaboration network effects — but AI-native design tools are the most acute threat to the core value proposition.
Network
~2 yrs
Adapting
13
ServiceTitan
Field service software
Deeply embedded in the operational DNA of trades businesses — but AI scheduling and dispatching tools are beginning to challenge the core workflow.
Workflow
~5 yrs
Adapting
14
Verint
Customer engagement
Regulatory compliance recording is defensible; the broader customer engagement platform is being disrupted by AI-native alternatives.
Data
~2 yrs
Adapting
15
Atlassian
Dev tools & collaboration
The knowledge archive is the moat, not the UI. But agents will increasingly navigate and surface that knowledge without the human needing to live in Jira.
Network
~2 yrs
Adapting
16
DocuSign
E-signatures
Brand trust in legal contexts is real — but the e-signature market has been largely commoditised by Adobe, HelloSign, and native platform tools.
Regulatory
~2 yrs
Adapting
17
Coupa
Procurement software
The benchmark data is the product, not the procurement workflow. That data moat is genuinely defensible.
Data
~5 yrs
Neutral
18
ServiceNow
IT workflow software
Genuinely hard to rip out, but agents will progressively automate the manual steps that justify the platform's complexity.
Workflow
~5 yrs
Adapting
19
Paycom
HR & payroll software
Solid mid-market position with real regulatory stickiness — but a smaller moat than ADP and Workday, and more exposed to AI-native payroll entrants.
Regulatory
~5 yrs
Neutral
20
Autodesk
Design & engineering software
The format standard is a durable moat — but generative AI design tools are the most credible long-term threat to the core product.
Workflow
~5 yrs
Adapting
21
Procore
Construction software
Legal record requirements and the subcontractor network create real stickiness, but the software layer is increasingly commoditised.
Data
~5 yrs
Neutral
22
Datadog
Observability platform
Deep production dependency is the moat — but cloud providers are bundling native observability tools that reduce the switching cost over time.
Workflow
~5 yrs
Adapting
23
Segment
Customer data platform
The identity graph is genuinely valuable but Segment is being squeezed by warehouse-native CDPs and Salesforce/Adobe's own data layers.
Data
~5 yrs
Adapting
24
Adobe
Creative software
The format standard and licensed training data are defensible; the creative tools themselves are under severe agent pressure.
Data
~2 yrs
Adapting
25
Dynatrace
Observability platform
Similar position to Datadog — deep production dependency — but slightly more defensible due to auto-instrumentation making the lock-in less visible.
Workflow
~5 yrs
Adapting
26
MongoDB
Database software
Code-level dependency is the moat — but the document database market is competitive and cloud-native alternatives are closing the gap.
Workflow
~5 yrs
Adapting
27
Workday
HR & finance software
Regulatory trust and CFO risk aversion are the real lock-in — the software is almost irrelevant.
Regulatory
~5 yrs
Adapting
28
Toast
Restaurant POS
Hardware lock-in plus data flywheel is a more durable combination than software alone — but the SMB restaurant market is brutally price-sensitive.
Data
~5 yrs
Adapting
29
FactSet
Financial data & analytics
The data is proprietary and the workflow dependency is deep — but Bloomberg Terminal is the dominant moat in this space and FactSet is a tier below.
Data
~5 yrs
Adapting
30
Twilio
Communications APIs
The physical telco relationships are the moat — but messaging channels themselves are at risk of displacement by app-native communication.
Physical
~5 yrs
Adapting
31
The Trade Desk
Programmatic advertising
The open internet positioning as an alternative to walled gardens is a genuine strategic moat — but the deprecation of third-party cookies is an existential test.
Data
~5 yrs
Adapting
32
Snowflake
Data warehousing
Data gravity is real but the warehouse market is intensely competitive — Databricks, BigQuery, and Redshift are all credible alternatives.
Data
~5 yrs
Adapting
33
Nutanix
Cloud infrastructure software
Physical data centre dependency is real but the secular shift to cloud is the long-term threat — Nutanix is defending an on-prem estate that is slowly shrinking.
Physical
~5 yrs
Adapting
34
Dayforce
Workforce management software
Compliance engine is the defensible core — workforce compliance failures have direct legal consequences, making buyers deeply risk-averse about switching.
Regulatory
~5 yrs
Adapting
35
Okta
Identity & access
Sits at a genuinely critical chokepoint — but Microsoft Entra is bundled into most enterprise contracts and is the most credible threat.
Regulatory
~5 yrs
Adapting
36
Rubrik
Data security & backup
The intersection of cyber insurance requirements and incident response trust makes this stickier than it looks — but the market is competitive.
Regulatory
~5 yrs
Adapting
37
Zscaler
Cloud security
Government mandates and zero-trust architecture dependencies make this genuinely sticky — but Palo Alto and Microsoft are credible challengers.
Regulatory
~5 yrs
Adapting
38
Intuit
Accounting software
The tax authority relationships and historical financial data compound over time in ways that are genuinely hard to replicate.
Data
Stable
Adapting
39
ADP
Payroll & HR software
The tax authority relationships and employer liability make this structurally sticky — switching payroll providers is genuinely high-risk.
Regulatory
Stable
Adapting
40
Databricks
Data & AI platform
Increasingly the default AI/ML platform for serious data organisations — the open-source Delta Lake moat is wide and growing.
Data
Stable
Adapting
41
Samsara
Fleet & operations software
Hardware-plus-data is a more durable combination than pure SaaS. The physical fleet dependency compounds the switching cost.
Data
Stable
Adapting
42
CrowdStrike
Cybersecurity
One of the more defensible positions in software — the threat intelligence flywheel compounds in ways that are structurally hard to replicate.
Data
Stable
Adapting
43
Tyler Technologies
Government software
Government procurement cycles and legislative oversight make this one of the most defensible positions in software. The moat is political, not technical.
Regulatory
Stable
Neutral
44
Medidata
Clinical trial software
The regulatory consequence of switching is so severe that Medidata is effectively unswitchable during an active trial.
Regulatory
Stable
Neutral
45
Guidewire
Insurance software
One of the most defensible companies on this list. The regulatory re-approval process makes switching functionally impossible in the medium term.
Regulatory
Stable
Neutral
46
Veeva
Life sciences software
Switching Veeva during an active drug approval could invalidate years of trial data. The regulatory consequence is the lock-in.
Regulatory
Stable
Neutral
47
Palo Alto Networks
Cybersecurity software
Scale-driven threat intelligence is a real moat — the more customers, the better the detection, creating a compounding advantage.
Data
Stable
Adapting
48
Palantir
Data analytics
The clearances and government relationships are structurally unassailable — no agent can obtain a security clearance.
Regulatory
Stable
Adapting
49
Cloudflare
Network security & CDN
The physical network is the product. No agent can spin up 300 data centres. This is a genuine infrastructure moat.
Physical
Stable
Adapting
50
Stripe
Payment processing
The most defensible company on this list. The regulatory and financial infrastructure cannot be replicated by an agent or rebuilt in a week.
Regulatory
Stable
Adapting