This seemed like a plausible fear when I first started 10 years ago. People have indeed cloned both of my rent-paying products over the years (possibly helped by the fact that I've released step-by-step instructions for building one of them).
But then, as you say, software is easy to write. Businesses are less easy to duplicate.
Is the kid who saw your Show HN and cloned your thing "in a weekend" going to stick out the years of work it will take to build a business off of it? Is Google really going to decide to focus on executing in the "Hook Twilio into a Calendar Scheduler and have it automatically robocall people so they remember to be home when the plumber arrives" space so that they can smoosh your little $10k MRR business?
I hear your fear expressed a lot from people cautioning against building software businesses. But I'm skeptical that we should really be scared of it.
Some MBAs caution against it because they BUY software businesses or programming services. If you know how to write software you can start them and fail quick with so little risk.
I have worked on about 20 projects between $100,000 and $3,000,000 where the primary stakeholders felt that writing a check was enough to run a software company. Like somehow buying bespoke software creation was like buying a used Honda and the key will just start it later if you ever get it out of the garage. A buddy of mine describes the trap as "It's easy to imagine, so I imagine it's easy."
By contrast I've seen non-technical guys with $30,000 take an interest in the work and not just listen to the creators, but inspire creativity, turning that to millions.
I've seen some developers deploy a beloved idea how like OP sold $20 chicken and are surprised when no one gives a shit. If you polish your turd like Duke Nukem Forever or Chinese Democracy, you might not get the response you want and it misses the utility we have in software to engage quickly while correcting course to get the thing on it's feet.
The comment I remember from Joel Spolsky when he released CoPilot(?), the product built by interns over the summer was that he would be thrilled if it made $500,000 over its lifetime. But if it was built by Microsoft and made $500k, they would shut it down in an instant. Even if it made $5M, they'd probably still shut it down since it wouldn't be worth the time.
You worry about Google, Microsoft, etc when you're building a $50M business. Below that, it won't probably even register on their radar.
One advantage of a legacy software / SaaS business is vendor lock-in and the conveniency hurdle. So it is easy to retain existing customers. And if you are the first in the market, you might have enough customers so that your business remains profitable for a long time, even when your growth is stalling because of new competition.
But I don't want to be pessimistic. Because there is no excuse for not having tried to build that business.
But then, as you say, software is easy to write. Businesses are less easy to duplicate.
Is the kid who saw your Show HN and cloned your thing "in a weekend" going to stick out the years of work it will take to build a business off of it? Is Google really going to decide to focus on executing in the "Hook Twilio into a Calendar Scheduler and have it automatically robocall people so they remember to be home when the plumber arrives" space so that they can smoosh your little $10k MRR business?
I hear your fear expressed a lot from people cautioning against building software businesses. But I'm skeptical that we should really be scared of it.