CEO OS
People ·April 12, 2026 ·person

Hamilton Helmer

Who they are

Hamilton Helmer is the strategist behind 7 Powers, the clearest modern framework for durable competitive advantage in software and beyond. A longtime investor and advisor, he translated decades of strategy practice into a short, rigorous taxonomy of the only seven structural forces that actually produce persistent differential returns. Required reading for any founder trying to build a moat rather than a feature.

Core Ideas

  • 7 Powers — the seven sources of durable advantage: Scale Economies, Network Economies, Counter-Positioning, Switching Costs, Branding, Cornered Resource, Process Power
  • Power must be both a benefit and a barrier — cheap to say, hard to earn
  • Keith Rabois — frequently cites 7 Powers as the strategy text founders should actually read

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