What Is a Personal Moat?

By Kristi Waterworth – Updated Jun 11, 2025 at 2:24 AM

Key Points

Personal moats use individual branding to protect and enhance business value.
They can boost a company's culture but may fail if tied too closely to one persona.
Investors should be cautious when a CEO's personal moat is a company's main defense.

Brand moats exist to help brands stand out and create more value for the company by providing an experience that's unmatched. But companies aren't the only ones who sometimes need to protect their specific images -- people do, too. That's where personal moats come in; they offer one more way to drill down into brand moats in this age of superstar CEOs and Instagram influencers.

Person standing in city and talking into camera. — Image source: Getty Images.

What is a personal moat?

A personal moat is just like a brand moat but for a person instead of a company. With a personal moat, a person uses their personal brand to establish the same kind of defensible position that companies do with theirs. Once in position and established, personal moats can catapult people to household name status.

Brand Moat

The competitive advantage a company builds through strong customer loyalty, recognition, and distinct market positioning.

If you think about it, you almost certainly have heard of someone with a personal brand moat, such as actresses and actors. In the world of business, it's more likely to be CEOs and billionaires. Take Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, or even Bill Gates. Love them or hate them, you know them and know they have dedicated followings to match those of Starbucks (SBUX +4.07%), Costco (COST -0.09%), or Coca-Cola (KO +2.16%).

Loading paragraph...

Why personal moats matter to investors

Investors should always care about moats around companies. They are often strategic defenses that protect these companies from their competition, and keep the stock's value strong. However, when a personal moat is mixed up in a brand's moat, or it is the brand's only moat, it pays to move with caution.

Long-term investments that depend on a personal moat can often leave you relying on the imperfections that exist within us all. Few people are without skeletons in their closets, and when these come to light, they can cause serious damage to a brand that relies on a CEO's personal moat.

Sure, it's fun to follow companies that are run by big personalities, but what happens when those leaders step down? Will the company even survive their retirement or departure? It doesn't always pay to build a portfolio based on sensational people.

About the Author

Kristi Waterworth has been a contributing real estate and financial expert at The Motley Fool, covering real estate, investing, and personal finance topics, since 2020. Kristi has been interviewed by various TV media outlets and podcasts for her real estate investing expertise – from residential real estate to digital real estate and everything in between. Kristi’s journalist career spans over 25 years, and she has written about real estate investing, homeownership, and home construction specifically for the last decade. She was also previously a licensed Realtor and general building contractor before the Great Recession and housing market collapse. She holds a bachelor’s degree in American history from Columbia College in Missouri.

TMFMaldivesBlue

@MaldivesBlues

Kristi Waterworth has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale, Microsoft, Starbucks, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.