What's up everyone? Welcome back to another episode of Founders Journal. I'm Alex Lieberman,

co-founder and executive chairman of Morning Brew. As I have mentioned with the new and

improved Founders Journal, I'm going to act as your startup Sherpa, reading the internet so you don't have to, and breaking down the best stuff that I find.

On today's episode, I read and break down, Speed As a Habit by David Gerard.

This essay was originally posted on first roundround review, which is one of my favorite startup blogs,

and it talks about the importance of speed in decision-making and execution when building a business.

I'm going to read the full article to you and

then provide my own analysis towards the end. I hope you enjoy. Speed as a habit. This article is by Dave Gerard, CEO of Personal Finance

Start Up Start and former president of Google Enterprise

Apps.

He's well known for building Google's Enterprise App's Division into a $1 billion global business.

He shares his tips for making speed fundamental to your company.

I've long believed that speed is the ultimate weapon in business. All else being

equal, the fastest company in any market will win.

Speed is a defining characteristic, if not the defining characteristic, of the leader in virtually

every industry you look at.

In tech, speed is seen primarily as an asset in product development.

Hence the move fast and break things mentality, the commitment to minimum viable products and agile development.

Many people would agree that speed and agility are how you win when it comes to product.

What they fail to grasp is that speed matters to the rest of the business too, not just product.

Google is fast, General Motors is slow, startups are fast, big

companies are slow. It's pretty clear that fast equals good, but there's relatively

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