(2025-04-23) Chin Is This A Moat Mailchimp And Paypals Algorithmic Advantage

Cedric Chin: Is This a Moat: Mailchimp and PayPal’s Algorithmic Advantage. This week, however, I’m going to present two business cases, and then ask a series of questions for members to answer in the forum. Note that I don’t have a great answer for these questions right now. This is an ongoing business puzzle that I’m trying to work out.

Here are my questions,

In the two cases that you’re about to read, is the competitive dynamic that is present a type of moat? Or is it a temporary competitive advantage, one that erodes over time?

If this is a moat, what is the nature of the Barrier? And what is its Benefit? Also: which one of the 7 Powers is it?

If it is not a moat, what lessons can you derive from the cases? How did this advantage ultimately affect the business? And what does it tell us about non-moat competitive advantages?

The better we get in reasoning and pattern matching against real world cases, the less likely we’ll be taken by surprise when something similar occurs to us in our businesses.

Mailchimp’s Early Edge

(rest is member-only)