Zack KanterVerified account

If the fastest company in a given market will win, then the most important thing for a tech startup is to maintain or increase development velocity over time. Sounds obvious, but very, very few startups explicitly state this as a goal.

Fastest to market is not the only measure of a start-up's success. I've seen businesses get to market by taking on serious tech-debt / long-term engineering pain / outsourcing to contractors

That’s exactly my point. Maintain development velocity *over time.*

Ironically this usually means going slower in the beginning. If you take out a velocity loan, you will never maintain or increase. If you write for the long term maintainability from day one, you will not be first to market, but more will get done during the life of the company.

100% agree. It’s one argument for using managed services - go slow in short term while you learn someone else’s model, go fast in long term when they continue to develop, document, and maintain it.