Field Note #004: Everyone Has the Tools. Few Have the System.
Why Speed Isn’t a Mindset or a Directive. It’s a System Outcome.
The myth of unfair advantage is fading. The real edge today isn’t access, it’s acceleration.
Most teams start with the same building blocks. But only a few turn those inputs into momentum. What separates them isn’t tech. It’s how they move.
Everyone has access to the a similar stack now: same AI models, templates, the power of automation, same 24 hours.
So why do some teams feel like rocket ships (Lovable, Gamma)…And others feel like they’re dragging a piano uphill? (won’t name names)
Here’s my take: The edge isn’t your tools or the recent star hire. It’s your system.
In 2025, what’s actually scarce isn’t technology, it’s how you organize humans around it.
I saw a team last week with a world-class tech stack stall for two weeks on a decision because no one felt safe just saying "go." And another team, with a very similar tech stack, shipped a product launch and three product tests in the same window.
The 3 variables that create asymmetric speed
⚡ Speed
Most teams optimize for consensus (no bueno)
High-trust teams optimize for momentum (muy bueno)
🤝 Trust
If people don’t trust leadership or each other, every decision gets rerouted through alignment theater (no bueno)
High-trust orgs decentralize judgment and move 10x faster (muy bueno)
🧭 Clarity
If your team doesn’t know the 1–2 things that matter this quarter, you’re trading motion for progress (no bueno)
Clarity is the force multiplier (muy bueno)
→ Speed = (Trust × Clarity)
The faster your team needs to move, the more trust and clarity must scale with it.
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Velocity, Designed: Two Teams Living the Thesis and Crushing it
Execution speed isn’t about hustle alone, it’s about the system behind the team.
So what does that look like in practice?
Here are two companies that aren’t just moving fast.
They’re moving with trust, clarity, and discipline baked into their operating system.
Same tools. Same time. Different outcomes by design.
#1: Lovable. Trust-Fueled Velocity in Action
Lovable isn’t just growing fast. It redefining what fast with integrity looks like.
In just 60 days, this 15-person team co-founded by
launched, scaled, and hit $10M ARR, all while building in public and recovering from a GitHub-triggered outage that would've grounded most startups. But they didn’t stall. They shipped a Plan B backend overnight, then posted a full public timeline, apology, and workaround within hours.What made that speed possible? A system built on clarity and trust:
Every team member is given equity and ownership, and told from day one: you’re shaping our culture.
Teams operate in small, autonomous squads that are trusted to ship, not wait.
Their hiring filter? “High-agency generalists who prioritize speed over process.”
Even outages became trust-building moments because the communication was fast, sincere, and clear.
In one demo, their AI tool generated a working Airbnb clone in 30 seconds, a flashy example of the team’s speed obsession. But the deeper insight? Speed isn’t the goal. Speed is a side effect of system design.
#2: Gamma. Ruthless Clarity, Tiny Team, Massive Output
Gamma plays the same game with different strengths. A 30-person team, $50M ARR, and 50 million users without bloat or noise.
What powers them? A maniacal focus on clarity and ruthless simplification:
Founder Grant Lee personally engages with users in a 1,000-person Slack to gather insight directly.
Their internal mantra? “Collapse complexity.” Fewer moving parts = faster execution.
Every new feature is live A/B tested. They track the performance of over 20 AI models in real-time.
Their org structure is designed for momentum: lean, flat, and constantly experimenting.
Lovable shows that speed is possible when autonomy is default and trust runs deep.
Gamma demonstrates how clarity of purpose and ruthless simplification fuel scale without chaos.
Here’s your system audit cheat sheet 👇
The first step is awareness, run an audit of your system, start by asking questions like:
Are decisions taking more than 3 steps to finalize?
Can every person on the team name this quarter’s top two priorities?
When things go sideways, who says “I’ve got it”, and does the team trust them
Because speed isn’t just about pace alone, it’s about morale too. Slow systems don’t just stall output. They stall people. They erode trust. They create doubt in the most capable minds on your team.
If you don’t fix this, your best people won’t just get frustrated, they’ll leave. Not for more money. But for the chance to move.
Want to win Q3?
Audit how your team makes decisions under pressure. Then build for speed, trust, and clarity. Because everything else is free now.
🧠 Next Reads
If this Field Note resonated, you’ll love these 3 deep dives. They compound.
📘 Language as Leverage
→ How unclear words create unclear teams, and how to fix it.🧭 On Making Better Decisions—Together
→ Great decisions aren’t top-down, they’re system-enabled.🚀 Fast Teams Move on Trust, Not Permission
→ Your team isn’t slow because they’re lazy, they’re stuck waiting for “go.”
💡 Each one builds on the same principle:
People are the engine. Fuel is the culture. Systems unlock scale.
If this resonated, consider sharing it with a leader, operator, or teammate who’s stuck chasing tools instead of building systems.
Because sometimes, the breakthrough isn’t a better tech stack, it’s a better way of moving together.
Sources
On Lovable
Anton Osika interview on Lenny’s Podcast
Lovable’s GitHub outage incident report
Various Lovable team LinkedIn posts and job descriptions emphasizing “high-agency” hires and “speed over process”
Demo of Airbnb clone in YouTube segment
On Gamma
SignalHub deep dive: How Gamma hit $50M ARR with 50M users
ARR Club coverage: Gamma at $50M ARR with 28 people
FastCompany feature on Grant Lee