Build the toll road. Let others pay to drive on it. In a world currently obsessed with launching products, building apps, or selling shiny new things, the real money has always been in owning the pipe—the system that every other product relies on. Apple doesn’t just sell iPhones; it takes a cut of everything that flows through the App Store. Amazon doesn’t just sell goods; it leases its logistics infrastructure to third parties through FBA. BlackRock doesn’t just sell ETFs; it runs the operating system (Aladdin) that powers trillions in institutional portfolios.
The winners—whether in tech, finance, or infrastructure—build ecosystems. They create tollbooths, not vehicles. They monetize flow, not just function. And they quietly get paid every time someone else tries to scale.
Products Fade. Pipes Print.
Products get commoditized. Features become table stakes. Interfaces evolve or get abandoned. But infrastructure—real platforms, real rails—compounds in power.
When you own the underlying system, not just the product riding on top of it, you don’t chase every trend—you consolidate them. Every new competitor becomes a customer, licensee, or tenant. Every innovation funnels through your ecosystem. You don’t just participate in the growth—you extract from it.
That’s the play: control the rails, and the traffic pays you forever. Whether it’s digital APIs, logistics networks, cloud infrastructure, or utility grids, consolidation isn’t optional—it’s inevitable. And whoever owns the pipe doesn’t just win. They reshape the market in their image.
Let’s break it down:
1. Apple: Ecosystem as Fortress
Apple owns the most valuable tollbooth in consumer tech: iOS + App Store + Payments + Devices. You can build a billion-dollar app, but Apple still takes 15–30% of every transaction.
More importantly, it owns the rules—the API protocols, privacy requirements, update standards. Developers play in Apple’s walled garden, and that garden gets more fortified every year.
Even if your product is revolutionary, if you’re in Apple’s world, you’re renting shelf space from the landlord.
2. Amazon: The Logistics Spine of Modern Retail
Amazon sells a lot of stuff. But its real dominance lies in AWS (infrastructure-as-a-service) and Fulfilled by Amazon (logistics-as-a-service).
- AWS is the backbone of the internet. Everyone from Netflix to Stripe pays to run through it.
- FBA lets small sellers access Amazon’s warehousing, shipping, and returns ecosystem—for a cut.
In both cases, Amazon doesn’t need to win every product category—it just needs everyone else to keep transacting through its infrastructure. Every sale, every API call, every delivery—it gets a taste.
3. BlackRock: Owning the Operating System of Asset Management
BlackRock isn’t just the biggest asset manager. It also owns Aladdin, the risk and portfolio management software used by trillions of institutional dollars—even by competitors.
They don’t just manage assets; they own the tools that others use to manage assets. In finance, this is the equivalent of owning the water supply while everyone else sells bottled water.
Aladdin is an API business. Plug in, pay monthly, and let BlackRock watch every transaction you make. Their data edge is unmatched—and they didn’t need to compete in every fund category to get it.
4. Pipes in the Physical World: Logistics, Energy, and Housing
This model isn’t just digital. The most sophisticated family offices and infrastructure funds are using the same playbook in the physical world.
- Logistics: Own the industrial warehouse, not the goods inside. Lease it to Amazon, UPS, or a 3PL. You don’t need to sell anything to capture the value.
- Energy: Own the substation, not the power. Every watt flows through your infrastructure. Grid-scale batteries, peaker plants, and interconnects are the new pipes.
- Housing: Mobile home park investors already know—you own the land, not the home. You’re not in the business of building shelter. You’re in the business of renting the dirt it sits on.
This is why real estate-backed infrastructure, modular tech, and data center campuses are getting so much attention from capital allocators—they’re becoming the pipes for the next digital and industrial wave.
The Tollbooth Model: Why It Wins
Here’s what pipes and platforms have in common:
- Recurring Revenue – Every user is a subscriber.
- Low Customer Acquisition Cost – Others bring users to you.
- Data Flywheels – More usage = more insight = better pricing.
- Network Effects – The more people use the pipe, the more valuable it becomes.
- Pricing Power – Want access? Pay the toll.
Where This Is Going Next
Watch these sectors:
- Healthcare: Whoever owns the patient data and provider access controls the game.
- Education: LMS platforms, testing software, credentialing APIs.
- AI Infrastructure: Inference engines, GPU cloud access, and data pipelines are the new “digital plumbing.”
- Water and Power Rights: As scarcity rises, the control of flow—literally—becomes the endgame.
Final Thought
I believe that a mass consolidation is upon us. As a potential recession looms, capital is getting more creative—and that forces clarity. We have to look hard at where the real value sits, and what fits cleanly into the ecosystem. Not everything scales. Not everything survives. But the assets that fit—those that plug into our systems, reinforce our core, and eliminate external dependencies—those are the ones that turn fragmentation into dominance.
This isn’t about chasing opportunity. It’s about absorbing it. Building a stack so tight, so integrated, that anyone entering the space is either with you—or crushed under your weight.