The Age of Speed Vs Hype

There are two speeds in business & tech right now.

On one side, there's the 'move fast and break the launch' button — think pump.fun memecoins that go from idea to $100M market cap in an afternoon (like JellyJelly). The viral apps like “Clubhouse” that blow up and die within six months. Low lift GPT wrappers that require more marketing than engineering. Creator-led brands that are more about the creator than the product (ie Prime by Logan Paul).

On the other side, there's the art of the slow burn. The Berachain multi-year mainnet anticipation. The Adept.ai waitlist – treating enterprise automation like an exclusive club.

These are the companies cultivating hype like a luxury watch brand — meticulously crafted, intentionally scarce, and with just enough whispers of exclusivity to keep everyone on edge.

We’re living in an era of two extremes.

A Case For Moving Fast

Bezos said it best. The only thing worse than making a bad decision is making a slow one. Tech has never been faster. The fast and loose instant execution approach in a rapidly-evolving industry makes sense.

Solana’s pump.fun lets traders spin up memecoins in literal seconds, turning ideas into a casino where attention spans are the only real currency. AI is no different — if you had an idea for a ChatGPT wrapper last week, congrats, five people already launched it. And in the creator economy, people are spinning up brands and podcasts everyday.

Speed isn’t just an advantage — it’s become a prerequisite for success in the age of Internet. Be first or be forgotten.

The Slow Burn

Yet sometimes speed comes at a compromise. There’s something special to be said about the brands that act like a handwritten letter in an inbox full of push notifications.

Berachain has been building for years, fueled by lore, memes. They have a loyal community that treats its mainnet launch like the second coming. Adept.ai, the automation startup everyone is dying to use, has people signing up for waitlists instead of just opening the floodgates.

Apple does this best — make people wait, make them want it more.

In this model, hype is meticulously designed, not just captured. Instead of rushing to market, the game is about controlled scarcity, narrative, and patience. These companies have the “second mover advantage”.

The second mover can watch ideas flop and adjust accordingly before making fatal mistakes in real-time. They can be crafty and calculated in ways open door projects cannot.

Which Approach Wins?

Honestly? Both. You just have to find what makes the most sense for your timing. It largely depends on where the world is at when you launch, and how mature your industry is.

People in nascent industries are probably more willing to wait for something special.

Speed works when attention is the only metric that matters. Memecoins and low-stakes AI tools thrive in an instant-gratification economy. Long-term hype wins when the product is actually difficult to replicate — when the thing being built has enough substance that time itself becomes a feature.

We’re watching this dichotomy unfold in real time. Some are running marathons at sprint speed, others are walking slow but making every step count. The real winners are the ones who know which game they’re playing.

What do you think? Are we in the era of "just ship it," or is patience the ultimate flex?