Interview with Maor Shlomo — Founder of Base44, Acquired by Wix

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> Q: What’s the biggest illusion among today’s frontier AI startups?

> A: Thinking they actually have a moat.

This conversation comes from a recent interview with Maor Shlomo, founder of Base44.

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In June, Wix — the Israeli internet giant — acquired the Vibe Coding product Base44 for $80 million. The startup:

• 8-person team
• Zero outside funding
• Launched less than six months prior
• Grew from 0 to 250K users
• Hit $1M ARR in just three weeks

After selling, Shlomo (who still leads product) reflected: Vibe Coding tools are easy to copy. A pure "technology moat" is rare. Giants like Google can enter quickly, making it hard for startups to hold ground. The real challenge is building fully integrated platforms that handle complex business scenarios.

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01 — Vibe Coding Is Easy to Copy, The Moat Lies in Vertical Integration

Why Basic Vibe Coding Lacks Defensibility

Host: Products like Vibe Coding can be replicated in 3 months. What's Base44’s defense?

Shlomo:

• Building a basic Vibe Coding tool is easy.
• Building a platform that supports real, daily-use business software is extremely hard.
• Some Base44 apps have millions of code lines.
• Real software needs iteration — hundreds or thousands of prompts — not just “single-prompt clones.”

The "last mile" moat:

• Deep integration with infrastructure — effectively building a “mini cloud.”
• Give LLMs access to databases, user management, integrations, scheduled tasks.

Commoditization at the Low-End

• Generating static sites or simple API-connected front-ends is now trivial.
• Higher-value territory: full-stack, functional, complex apps — e.g., a marketing platform that scrapes, analyzes, and schedules content automatically.

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02 — Tech Moats Are Rare, Giants Are the Real Competition

Three Market Categories (3–5 Years Outlook)

• Innovative startups: Base44, Lovable, Replit
• Giants adding AI into entrenched products: Figma, Cloudflare, Atlassian, Salesforce
• Consumer + niche AI tools: Canva, Cognition, Cursor

Key question: Will specialists move down-market to take your users, or will you move up-market to take theirs?

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Giants’ Advantage

• Salesforce or Monday.com can integrate Vibe Coding into their own infrastructure.
• Trend toward "software liquification" — user-customizable UIs and full-stack records.

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Specialized vs. General Tools

• Base44: Target non-technical users, hiding code complexity.
• Cursor/Cognition: Cater to developers and enterprise projects.

New features like "Scheduled Tasks" (send reminders, automated emails, bots integrated into WhatsApp/Slack) expand Base44’s capabilities.

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On Competitors & Model Providers

• Concern: If a single model provider dominates, they can capture the whole market.
• Giants like Google have cloud, data, and apps to build unassailable positions.
• Model choice can be switched with a single line of code — unlike traditional cloud migrations.

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Example:

• Claude Sonnet excels at architecture from scratch.
• GPT-5 better at complex bug-fixing.
• Gemini may dominate if improvements are significant.

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03 — Future Software Will Become "Liquid"

Software Liquification

• Users will adapt templates/open-source with Vibe Coding, rather than buying rigid SaaS tools.
• Benefits: Ownership of code/data, no lock-in, customization without bloat.

Gradual Enterprise Shift

• Enterprises will be slow to change, but economics favor fully-owned, tailor-made AI software over bloated general-purpose tools.

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Small Business Perspective

• Small firms want simpler, leaner, self-tweakable tools.
• Drag-and-drop solutions are often too complex or generic.
• LLM-driven tools can directly solve specific real-world problems with minimal features.

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04 — Growth First, Margins Later

Ev Randall's Perspective: Focus on total revenue per customer, not margins.

Shlomo's view:

• Market is huge — priority is getting more customers.
• Margins will improve as small/open-source models handle trivial tasks.
• Big concern: competition speed — features are copied within weeks or days.

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Defensible Bets

• Vertical integration: Built-in backend, DB, auth, analytics — no reliance on external infra.
• High barrier for competitors to migrate users.

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05 — Why Sell to Wix?

Decision crossroads:

• Bootstrap alone — risk being outspent.
• Raise big capital — scale fast.
• Partner with a giant — leverage resources.

Why Wix fit:

• Same audience & culture.
• World-class marketing.
• Structure: Lean product team + Wix’s infra/support.

Outcome: Tripled Shlomo’s odds of global impact without regret.

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06 — Invest in Vertical Integration, Even in "Unsexy" Sectors

Current AI Bubble Reality:

• $0 → $10M ARR can happen fast.
• Real value = healthy, defensible, vertically integrated business.

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Example: Cursor used others’ models to grow, then launched its own Composer model to boost margins.

Where to Invest:

• Traditional industries operated end-to-end with AI — e.g., an AI-powered law firm, hospital.

Where Not to Invest:

• Pure Agent companies easily commoditized by model providers.

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Base44’s Competitive Edge:

• Targets non-technical market, eliminating code from UX.
• Belief: Many developers will prefer “no-code” AI in a flow state.

Investment Pick Between Cursor & Cognition:

• Cognition — larger growth potential, less monopoly risk.

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Final Takeaways

• Moats in AI tool startups = deep integration + infrastructure, not novelty.
• Giants can shift markets rapidly.
• Software is becoming liquid — customizable, owned, lean.
• Speed is everything; features are replicated in days.
• Growth > margins initially, with open-source models improving margins later.
• Strategic partnerships (like Wix) can multiply success potential.
• Smart capital should seek vertical integration in both tech and traditional industries.

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Would you like me to create an accompanying visual market map summarizing Shlomo’s three categories and moat factors? That would make this Markdown even more digestible for readers.