4 ideas
A true innovation isn't a single breakthrough but a stack of interdependent solutions, each one created to solve a problem caused by the previous solution. Because the elements only work together as a system, competitors can't copy any single piece without rebuilding the entire interlocking structure.
Most business builds on imitation of proven models, but genuine entrepreneurship only happens when there is nothing to copy because no precedent exists for the problem. This forces a series of original solutions, which is uncomfortable precisely because there's no expert or template to validate the path.
When Amazon launched a competing card reader priced lower and backed by vastly more resources, Square didn't cut prices or panic but kept building its stack. Amazon withdrew within a year, demonstrating that a deep innovation stack can defeat a richer, more powerful attacker who can only copy surface features.
Instead of fighting for existing customers, look at the people an industry refuses to serve and treat their exclusion as the design constraint. Building specifically for the rejected (like small merchants banks wouldn't process) often forces the chain of novel solutions that becomes a defensible business.