Peter Rip: Barriers to Entry Don't Exist

Peter Rip of Leapfrog Ventures just posted a great article on barriers to entry for startups. He argues that barriers simply don't exist. Rather, startups should focus on "obstacles" to imitation, the best of which, Peter writes, is an entrepreneur who can keep up the pace of innovation. To some extent his argument is one of semantics but it hammers home the point that if you have a great idea, competitors will find a way to copy it and that the real advantage startups have is the ability to react more quickly than larger established organizations. I believe that Mr. Rip's post is the best I read so far in the current patent jabber spreading across the blogsphere. Anyone looking for ideas on non-patent "obstacles" may also want to read my earlier post here.