The next GTM moat is in-person

I sell GTM software.

The best GTM move right now has nothing to do with software.

If you've been thinking about where the moat in GTM goes in 2026 and 2027, here it is.

In person. In real life. The opposite of AI.

AI didn't stop mattering. It stopped being scarce.

For 2 years the edge was good copy and good lists. AI made both free. Everyone has them now, so they're worth nothing. A moat only lives where the work is still hard to copy. Right now that's one layer: being in the room.

To be clear, none of the digital stuff is dead.

→ Calling still works. → Email still works. → LinkedIn content still works.

All of it. It's a massive amplifier. But in person is the new edge. Nobody can copy-paste a handshake.

I saw the proof last week at Stripe's Startup Build Days in SF.

My first thought: "holy shit, they're spending a lot of money on this."

Then it clicked. If just ONE of those startups becomes the next big thing, they'll pay Stripe millions in transaction fees for years. The CAC on the room is tiny next to that upside. It's a no-brainer.

And that's before the indirect stuff. Hosting the community buys them trust and brand you can't get from ads.

Now the part people get wrong.

This is exactly where the software comes back in. You automate the commodity layer so your scarce human hours go where it counts.

→ Before: an agent sources the invite list against your ICP, enriches the attendees, drafts the personal touch before you ever shake a hand. → During: the room. The one part no agent can do for you. → After: an agent runs the follow-up, logs who showed and who converted, nurtures the long tail.

The event is the car. The software is the factory around it.

We're hosting our first OXYGEN GTM dinner in SF soon. We'll point our own agents at our own guest list to prove it.

If you're in SF and building in GTM, hmu :)