Every monopoly is unique, but they usually share some combination of:
- Proprietary technology: a good rule of thumb, proprietary technology must be at least 10 times better than its closest substitute in some important dimension to lead to a real monopolistic advantage.
- Network effects: keep in mind that you’ll never reap network effects unless your product is valuable to its very first users when the network is necessarily small.
- Economies of scale: A good startup should have the potential for great scale built into its first design.
