TLDR Tech / Fintech
How startups disrupt incumbents by commoditizing complements in the AI era
The essay outlines “commoditizing complements” as a core strategy for disrupting incumbents by reducing the cost, switching friction, or importance of adjacent products that support a dominant platform. It highlights three approaches: destroying pricing power, lowering switching costs, or vertically integrating to absorb the complement, with examples from Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce. In the AI era, this strategy is increasingly relevant as LLMs weaken traditional software moats, making workflow ownership and proprietary data the key to capturing value.
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