[borzi]

True, it only misses to meet number 3 (it's easily copied and just getting cheaper to build software as technology advances). I think the document also misses to mention saturation of the market, which software is also very saturated and this makes it hard for new businesses to get going...

[SCUSKU]

The only thing I can think of that would prevent easy copying in the SaaS world would be to have most or all of your data generated by users, and then doggedly protecting that data from scraping, and/or hiding it behind a login.

Otherwise, if your business relies on scraping other peoples data and then presenting a nice UI around that, it could just as easily be replicated by others (no moat, as we're saying nowadays).

Of course, much like the niche chemical salesman, maybe the ideal scraping business would be to find such a niche that is small enough that other people wouldn't find it worthwhile to replicate your SaaS.

[fm2606]

>> protecting that data from scraping, and/or hiding it behind a login

And even behind a login can still be scraped. (The proverbial "If I can do it anyone can" applies here along with "where there is a will there's a way")