20VC: The 8 Moats of Enduring Software Companies: How to Analyse for Durability and Defensibility in a World of AI | Why Dropouts are "AI Maxing" the World & Remote Early-Stage Companies are Dying with Gokul Rajaram

Gokul Rajaram, investor and board member at Coinbase, Pinterest, and The Trade Desk, discusses how his experiences at Google, Facebook, Square, and DoorDash shaped his investment strategies. Rajaram emphasizes the importance of a remarkable core product, the power of distribution, and the value of a multi-product portfolio, where some products drive retention rather than profit. He introduces a framework of "eight modes" to assess a software company's durability, including data, workflow, regulatory, distribution, ecosystem, network, physical infrastructure, and scale. The conversation explores the impact of AI on SaaS companies, the shift from software to human labor budgets, and the increasing importance of outcome-based pricing. Rajaram also shares his insights on market sizing, the challenges of non-consumption markets, and the significance of customer and revenue retention.