Speed of execution is the moat inside which live all other moats. Speed is your best strategy. Speed is your strongest weapon. Speed has THE highest correlation to mammoth outcomes. Those who conflate speed w/ 'thoughtlessness' haven't seen world class execution @ speed. E.g.:

Many confuse speed w/ impatience. Impatience is your boss pinging you @ 9pm then calling @ 6am to check if a task is done. Speed is strategic. It is a permeated sense of urgency built w/ a shared belief that what you are doing is important & if you don’t do it, someone else will.
AMZN defines speed. Their 2015 SEC filing (https://t.co/fWSsmlxVdI) is a must-read: (1) deliberate irreversible decisions (~10%?) (2) expedite all else. Founding teams need to learn how to apply judgment w/ <70% of data (<50% for early stage cos). Move fast, “disagree & commit”.
The launch of AMZN Prime is, of course, the stuff of legends. Apparently, Bezos called his top leadership over the xmas weekend to his house (busiest week of the year; lots of stuff crashing) & tells them to plan & launch Prime in 3-4 weeks. @vijayravindran talks about it (3):
.@elonmusk is another fantastic example of speed & urgency. In 2018, unhappy w/ how the Starlink project was moving, he flew to Seattle &, soon upon landing, fired 7 of his top managers. By May 2019, there were 60 starlink sats in space. Elon is now expediting Mars timelines.
Back on earth, @pfizer pulled a miracle covid vaccine out of what seemed like a magic hat but behind the scenes, the CEO was pushing his team to deliver 10x the capacity they had initially planned. He was asking his team, “Why can’t we make more and why can’t we make it sooner?”
Speed has a LOT of benefits. Rapid rollouts builds traction & moats faster→ more wins→ better morale→ more success→ better PR→ attracts capital @ better valuation→ attracts stronger people→ more success. Eric Schmidt used to say Revenue solves all known problems, but…
...before revenue hits, speed solves most known problems. Mike Cassidy of Google[x] wrote about this extensively - here’s an example of how quickly he opened up a new office for his then startup post a fundraiser in ‘98. If you can do THIS in 1998, we have no excuse in 2020.
So, how to identify sluggishness in your company? Found a strong VP of sales→ took 7 days to close? Close in <24hrs. Hired a bad salesperson→ took 6mos to fire? Fire in <60d. Product sprints are 4wk? Do in <2wk. Growth slowing, but took 2 mos to call all-hands? 🤦‍♂️CALL TONIGHT!
.@hubiloconnect (@LightspeedIndia portco) saw their revenues fall to $0 in Mar’20 as offline events shut down due to covid. In 20 days, they pivoted to virtual events: reduced sprint cycles to <5d, worked weekends, built an MVP & got 1 client@ $250. They are now touching 10M ARR.
Speed works! Speed of execution is the moat inside which live all other moats. Speed is your best strategy. Speed is your strongest weapon. We are obsessed with speed. If you are a founder who loves speed & can keep pace with Lightspeed, we’d love to hear from you!

/end.

More from Society

So, as the #MegaMillions jackpot reaches a record $1.6B and #Powerball reaches $620M, here's my advice about how to spend the money in a way that will truly set you, your children and their kids up for life.

Ready?

Create a private foundation and give it all away. 1/

Let's stipulate first that lottery winners often have a hard time. Being publicly identified makes you a target for "friends" and "family" who want your money, as well as for non-family grifters and con men. 2/

The stress can be damaging, even deadly, and Uncle Sam takes his huge cut. Plus, having a big pool of disposable income can be irresistible to people not accustomed to managing wealth.
https://t.co/fiHsuJyZwz 3/

Meanwhile, the private foundation is as close as we come to Downton Abbey and the landed aristocracy in this country. It's a largely untaxed pot of money that grows significantly over time, and those who control them tend to entrench their own privileges and those of their kin. 4

Here's how it works for a big lotto winner:

1. Win the prize.
2. Announce that you are donating it to the YOUR NAME HERE Family Foundation.
3. Receive massive plaudits in the press. You will be a folk hero for this decision.
4. Appoint only trusted friends/family to board. 5/

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1/ Some initial thoughts on personal moats:

Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.

Characteristics of a personal moat below:


2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.

As Andrew Chen noted:


3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized

Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than


4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.

After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.

5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.

In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
https://t.co/6cRR2B3jBE
Viruses and other pathogens are often studied as stand-alone entities, despite that, in nature, they mostly live in multispecies associations called biofilms—both externally and within the host.

https://t.co/FBfXhUrH5d


Microorganisms in biofilms are enclosed by an extracellular matrix that confers protection and improves survival. Previous studies have shown that viruses can secondarily colonize preexisting biofilms, and viral biofilms have also been described.


...we raise the perspective that CoVs can persistently infect bats due to their association with biofilm structures. This phenomenon potentially provides an optimal environment for nonpathogenic & well-adapted viruses to interact with the host, as well as for viral recombination.


Biofilms can also enhance virion viability in extracellular environments, such as on fomites and in aquatic sediments, allowing viral persistence and dissemination.