Do software moats still exist? (ft. Claude Code)
Software moats need to evolve in the era of agentic coding
Recently, I was out having a dinner, and overheard two people (presumably in SaaS or finance) have an intense debate about whether software businesses still have a future. By the end of the conversation, they decided to agree that “no enterprise will rip out Salesforce with a vibe coded solution”.
I’m writing this post in part to challenge that view. When technology changes very rapidly, things like enterprise inertia may not protect a software business in the long run (~2 years).
Instead of debating hypotheticals and vibe posting about “moats” on Twitter, I decided to run an experiment.
Using Claude Code (btw, I’m not shilling for anyone, Codex or Gemini CLI works just fine too), I vibe coded a barebones Salesforce clone over three hours.
Then afterwards, I had Claude Code reflexively use Chrome to go through every logged in page in the CRM, and pull out all the data inside it. It was able to do it autonomously in one shot.
So what does this mean? Am I saying all software companies are doomed, and you should start doing Plumbing / HVAC / Botox businesses? Or start an “AI consultancy”? Not quite. Don’t do that to yourself.
Note, I’m familiar with Salesforce as a former user (at AWS) and have written multiple constructive articles about it (see my coverage on AgentForce, and coverage of Salesforce’s AELAS for exec tier subscribers). I’m also well aware of the bull/bear arguments in this space, and have traded SaaS for ten years.
With that in context, in the rest of this post, I’ll share more on my experiment, and what I make of software moats as of Jan 2026.
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