One of the biggest questions facing every founder today is deceptively simple:
If AI can build software for almost anyone, what actually makes a software company valuable?
When I sat down with Lenny Pruss, General Partner at Amplify Partners, his answer wasn’t code, infrastructure or even AI.
It was trust.
For decades, software companies built moats because writing great software was difficult. That technical advantage created enough lead time to win customers, establish distribution and become the default solution. Today, AI has dramatically compressed that window. What once took years can now be replicated in weeks.
That changes everything.
Lenny argues that the new competitive advantage isn’t simply building faster, it’s earning trust faster. Customers aren’t buying software because it’s novel. They’re buying confidence that it will work tomorrow, next month and years from now. Reliability, support, security and consistency become increasingly valuable as software itself becomes easier to create.
This is particularly true in infrastructure. No matter how capable AI becomes, businesses still need systems they can rely on for mission-critical workloads. That’s why developer trust, brand reputation and customer advocacy become far stronger moats than technical complexity alone.
The conversation also reinforced something I’m seeing every day as an investor and recruiter.
Speed still matters but speed without trust doesn’t compound.
The companies that break out won’t simply ship the fastest product. They’ll win production workloads, delight early customers and build credibility quickly enough that those customers become their strongest advocates.
In a world where software is becoming increasingly abundant, trust may become the scarcest asset of all.
Until next time,
Firas Sozan