Slow success builds character. Fast success builds ego.
At 21, I rode the wave of instant success with Rizz AI. 400,000 users. A quick exit. The startup dream, right? It was exhilarating, sure. But it was also... deceptive?
My current company, Stiddle, feels like the trenches in comparison. Here, customer data isn't just a metric—it's gold dust. Trust is earned, not given. Slowly. Painfully. With every line of code and every customer interaction.
And you know what? It's teaching me more than Rizz ever did.
Not all products are created equal. Consumer apps can afford to be quirky, even buggy. A free app for spicing up your texts? Sure, ship it fast, fix it later. But business software that companies shell out thousands for? That's a different ball game.
Think about the software you truly love. Notion. Figma. These weren't overnight sensations. They're the product of years of careful iteration, of deep thought and deeper testing. They didn't move fast and break things. They moved deliberately and built trust.
This is the counterintuitive truth of B2B success: sometimes, you need to slow down to speed up. Patience isn't just a virtue; it's a strategy.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not dismissing the value of speed or the wisdom of startup gurus. But I am saying this: context matters.
When Zuckerberg said "Move fast and break things," he wasn't handling payroll data or marketing attribution. When Y Combinator advises shipping an MVP that embarrasses you, they're not thinking about enterprise software that companies stake their reputations on.
In the world of business software, especially when you're handling sensitive data, breaking things isn't an option. It's a death sentence.
So, what's the alternative? Build with intention. Focus on quality from day one. Understand that in B2B, your minimum viable product isn't just about functionality—it's about trust, reliability, and polish.
It's a tougher road, sure. Slower, definitely. But it's also more rewarding. Every satisfied customer, every successful database migration, feels like a hard-won victory. Because it is.
As founders, we need to be discerning about the advice we follow. The startup world isn't one-size-fits-all. What works for a social media app might sink an enterprise software company.
So next time you hear "move fast and break things," pause. Ask yourself: what am I building? Who am I building it for? What are the stakes?