After 200+ angel investments, I've seen the same the 5 unspoken rules of building a defensible mistake destroy companies over and over.
I've been in the Silicon Valley trenches for over a decade, and I've never seen a shift as massive as AI in healthcare. I'm sharing the hard-won lessons from my own startups and investments—the wins, the failures, and the counterintuitive strategies that actually work.
The Framework That Actually Works
I'm going to share the exact framework I use when evaluating the 5 unspoken rules of building a defensible. It's not complicated, but it requires discipline.
Step 1: the best solutions are often the simplest ones This is where most people go wrong. They skip this step entirely and jump straight to execution. Don't do that.
Step 2: simplicity beats complexity every time Once you have the foundation right, this becomes much easier. I've watched founders struggle with this for months when the answer was staring them in the face.
Step 3: Iterate relentlessly Nothing works perfectly the first time. The companies in my portfolio that nail the 5 unspoken rules of building a defensible are the ones that treat it as an ongoing process, not a one-time project.
Why Most Approaches Fail
Let me be direct: about 70% of the approaches I see to the 5 unspoken rules of building a defensible are fundamentally flawed. Not slightly off. Fundamentally flawed.
The root cause is usually one of three things:
- Copying what big companies do without understanding why they do it. What works for Google doesn't work for a 10-person startup.
- Over-engineering the solution when a simple approach would work better. I've seen teams spend six months building something that could have been done in two weeks.
- Ignoring the human element. Technology is the easy part. Getting people to actually use it is where the real challenge lives.
The AI Angle
I can't talk about the 5 unspoken rules of building a defensible in 2026 without mentioning AI. As someone who's invested in Anthropic, OpenAI, Scale AI, and Hugging Face, I have a front-row seat to how AI is transforming this space.
The short version: AI makes good practitioners better and bad practitioners worse. It's an amplifier, not a replacement.
I've seen companies use AI to 10x their the 5 unspoken rules of building a defensible capabilities. I've also seen companies waste millions on AI solutions that solved the wrong problem. The difference comes down to understanding what you're actually trying to achieve.
This connects to broader themes around AI mental health, AI diagnostics, healthcare automation, clinical AI, drug discovery AI that I've been thinking about a lot lately.
Final Thoughts
After two exits, 200+ investments, and more mistakes than I can count, here's what I know for sure about the 5 unspoken rules of building a defensible: there are no shortcuts, but there are smarter paths.
The smartest founders I work with treat the 5 unspoken rules of building a defensible as a competitive advantage, not a checkbox. They invest in it early, measure it obsessively, and never stop improving.
If you're just getting started with the 5 unspoken rules of building a defensible, don't be intimidated. Everyone starts somewhere. The key is to start with the right mindset and the right framework, and then execute like your company depends on it. Because it probably does.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the most common pushback you get on this?
People often push back by citing exceptions or edge cases. And they're usually right that exceptions exist. But building a strategy around exceptions rather than patterns is a losing game for most founders.
How can I apply this thinking to my own situation?
Start by identifying the core principle behind the opinion, not the specific example. Then ask yourself: does this principle apply to my context? If yes, test it in a small, low-risk way before going all in.
What experience informs this perspective?
This perspective comes from over a decade of building companies in Silicon Valley, two successful exits (RemoteTeam to Gusto, MovieLaLa to Gfycat), and investing in 200+ startups including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Scale AI. I write about what I've lived.