What Are They Actually Buying?
Entrepreneur Office Hours - Issue #328
Inside the Office
A few weeks ago I hosted a coffee chat between a handful of student founders and Lindsey Argalas ‘96, CEO of TaxBit and a Duke I&E Advisory Board member. The students came loaded with questions about FinTech, AI, and the future of software. What they were really asking, underneath all of it, was the question that seems to hang over every campus conversation with students these days: will there be jobs, and will I get one?
I try to remain empathic as my students express genuine concern about their futures all while in the back of my mind I am thinking that this angst is unjustified. After all, these are Duke students. They’re statistically exceptional. The creativity, the mental agility, the relentless problem-solving is always on full display, and their smarts live up to the hype. And yet here they were, visibly nervous, asking a highly accomplished CEO to please just tell them everything is going to be okay.
While Lindsey didn’t exactly do that, she did give them an incredible nugget of wisdom.
Someone asked her how software companies build durable competitive advantage in a world where AI lets any firm build its own solution. It’s a real problem for the industry, as the moat that used to come from being the only team that could build something sophisticated is shrinking fast. Her answer was simple and stuck with me: lean into your unique competitive advantage. Figure out why your customers are actually choosing you, because that reason is probably no longer just the technical thing you deliver. What are they really buying? What’s the thing only you can give them?
While the students were thinking about software companies, I was thinking about the students sitting in front of me.
The exact same question applies to every person trying to navigate an uncertain labor market right now. The technical skill, the credential, the major — those things matter, but they’re increasingly table stakes. They’re not the moat. The durable advantage is the thing underneath: what makes you uniquely you, and how does that let you create value for other people in a way that’s hard to replicate?
For one person, it’s an unusual combination of quantitative rigor and storytelling instinct. For another, it’s deep domain obsession paired with an ability to build trust in a room. For someone else, it’s relentless curiosity that keeps them two steps ahead of whatever the next thing is. These are hard things to build. They don’t depreciate the same way technical skills do.
So here’s the question... do you know why someone chooses you for the job, the project, the team? What are they actually buying? If you can answer that clearly, you are going to be just fine.
-Jamie
Worth Your Time
I was talking with a friend recently about how busy I’ve been feeling. It’s the kind of busy where every hour is accounted for, every minute feels like it needs to be optimized, and yet somehow it still feels like there’s not enough time. In response, he recommended a book I’d never heard of called How to Live on 24 Hours a Day and written by Arnold Bennett.
I’ll admit, I was skeptical. The title alone sounds like something ripped straight from the modern productivity-industrial complex. But then I started reading it and realized… this thing was written in 1908.
Somehow, it feels like it was written yesterday.
Bennett’s central idea is simple but quietly unsettling. He basically notes that everyone gets the same 24 hours, and most of us waste far more of them than we’d ever care to admit by letting time happen to us instead of deciding, deliberately, how we want to use it.
To be clear, he’s not arguing that we all need to start cramming more into our days. Instead, the point he’s making is around recognizing that time is our most fixed resource, and we should should be treating it with the same intentionality we bring to money or strategy.
The reason I’m sharing this text here is because that mindset is deeply entrepreneurial. Entrepreneurs love to talk about capital, talent, and opportunity, but the real constraint is always time. And not just how much of it you have, but how consciously you choose to spend it.
Bennet’s book is a short read, and, admittedly, a little dated in places. But it’s also surprisingly sharp. And if you’ve ever caught yourself saying “I just don’t have time,” it’s worth sitting with Bennett’s response to that idea… because he’s not particularly sympathetic.
Tools We’re Tinkering With
Editor’s note: All resources suggested in this section are based on our opinions. These aren’t affiliate promotions and we don’t generate commissions.
In class the other day, I had my phone connected to the projector and was showing something inside an app. But instead of asking questions about the thing I was trying to teach (which, admittedly, was frustrating), my students started asking lots of questions about the app I was using. So I guess maybe a younger generation simply doesn’t know about it?
Either way… I figured I’d share in case you don’t know about it either. The app was Trello, the hyper-flexible, digital kanban board that allows you to basically create and organize lists in whatever ways make sense inside your head.
Kanban, for those who’ve never used it, is basically a system of cards. You place those cards in columns based on whatever organizing principle you’d like to use, you can place whatever you want on the cards, and you can move them into whatever columns you want, whenever you want to.
Also, if that description makes kanban sound confusing, just imagine columns of sticky notes on a whiteboard where you’ve written whatever you want.
Easy, right?
Now, imagine being able to have those sticky notes, except on your computer or phone and they’re infinitely flexible. That’s basically Trello.
Honestly, it used to help me organize basically my entire life… my company, my classes, my family… everything. But then it got acquired, and a lot of the collaboration components that made it so good for working with others were severely limited on the free tier, so I backed off. But, for personal use, the free tier is still my go-to organizer and worth checking out if you’ve never tried it.