Cory Doctorow’s Enshittification put a word to something founders had already felt.

Platforms start friendly.
They help you grow.
They lower the friction.

And then, once you depend on them, they turn.

Fees rise. Rules change. Access narrows. Your leverage disappears.

What the book makes clear—and what founders still underestimate—is that this is not a moral failure. It is a structural one.

And in 2026, ignoring that structure is an avoidable mistake.

The Platform Arc Founders Keep Relearning

Doctorow’s thesis is uncomfortable and straightforward: platforms don’t accidentally betray users. They do it because once control is centralized, extraction becomes rational.

For founders, the arc usually looks like this:

• You build on a platform because it accelerates growth
• You optimize around its APIs, rules, and distribution
• Your product becomes tightly coupled to someone else’s ecosystem
• The platform changes terms
• You absorb the hit because you have no leverage

At that point, you don’t have a partnership. You have exposure.

Where IP Fits Into This (and Usually Doesn’t)

Most founders respond to platform risk operationally:

• diversify channels
• renegotiate contracts
• adjust pricing
• rebuild features

Very few respond structurally.

Intellectual property is one of the few tools founders have to shift leverage back—even slightly—when platforms degrade.

But only if it’s done intentionally.

Why Platform-Dependent Startups Have a Special IP Problem

When your product is built on top of a platform, your IP strategy tends to mirror that dependence.

Patents focus on:

• Features exposed through the platform
• Workflows defined by the platform
• Implementations that only exist inside that ecosystem

From an IP perspective, that’s fragile.

If the platform changes—or competes directly—your patents may no longer matter, or worse, may strengthen the platform’s position instead of yours.

The Enshittification Insight Applied to IP

The more profound lesson of Enshittification is not “platforms are bad.”

It’s this:

Any system you don’t control will eventually be optimized against you.

That applies just as much to IP strategy as it does to distribution.

Founders should assume:

• APIs will change
• Terms will tighten
• Data access will narrow
• Incentives will flip

And then ask: what still belongs to us when that happens?

That answer should shape what you patent.

What Platform-Resilient IP Actually Looks Like

IP that survives platform decay tends to protect things the platform cannot easily absorb or revoke, such as:

• Independent data processing or transformation layers
• Orchestration logic that spans multiple platforms
• Cost, latency, or reliability optimizations, the platform does not expose
• Integration workflows that customers rely o,n regardless of provider
• Migration, portability, or compliance mechanisms that reduce lock-in

These are not “nice-to-have” features. They are leverage points.

And they are almost always underprotected.

Why This Matters More in 2026

In 2026, platform dependence is deeper than it was even a few years ago.

AI APIs.
Cloud marketplaces.
App stores.
Data brokers.
Distribution aggregators.

Founders no longer avoid platforms—they must choose which risks to accept.

The mistake is assuming those risks won’t be exercised.

The Diligence Reality Founders Don’t See Coming

Acquirers now look closely at platform exposure.

They ask:

• What happens if this platform changes terms?
• How portable is the core value?
• Does the IP protect independence or entrench dependence?

If the answers aren’t convincing, valuation gets adjusted quietly—or interest fades altogether.

No buyer wants to inherit someone else’s platform risk without compensation.

A Practical Question for Founders

If a key platform turned hostile tomorrow, what would you still control?

If the answer is “not much,” your IP strategy is probably reinforcing the very dependency you should be mitigating.

Closing Thought

Enshittification explains why platforms eventually extract value from those who rely on them.

For founders, the extension is straightforward:

You cannot stop platforms from changing.
But you can decide whether your IP leaves you powerless when they do.

In 2026, the most resilient companies won’t be the ones that avoided platforms.

They’ll be the ones that planned for the turn—and built leverage before it happened.