> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://precise-ai.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Why Speed Thrives on Context - URL: https://precise-ai.ghost.io/why-speed-thrives-on-context/ - Published: 2026-08-21T14:11:25.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-21T14:11:25.000Z - Author: Robert Spencer Potts Throughout my career, I have seen speed as one of a company's greatest assets. I continue to believe this. Speed accelerates learning and uncovers opportunities that might remain hidden while organizations wait to feel "ready." I have learned that speed only scales successfully when grounded in context. Without context, speed depletes energy. With context, it creates compounding momentum. Momentum has always fascinated me. Teams that decide, learn, adapt, and move forward consistently outperform those waiting for certainty that rarely arrives. Progress stems from action. But how does that progress take shape? **The speed trap** My belief in speed's relationship to context influenced how Adam Helfgott and I built Madhive. We value strong opinions, loosely held, which foster debate, candor, and a sense of psychological safety that allows the best ideas to emerge from anywhere. We believe action drives learning, and learning refines judgment, which leads to better decisions. Initially, this rhythm felt like a superpower. Then growth brought everything founders dream of: more customers, more talent, more products, and more opportunities. But it also introduced complexity. Decisions and handoffs multiplied each year. More people influenced outcomes. Like many leaders, I asked myself: How do we move faster? At first, I thought urgency was the answer, as many CEOs do. Over time, I realized that the teams with the greatest speed were rarely the teams most focused on acceleration itself. They were the teams operating from the richest context, allowing each decision to build naturally upon the last. **The source of lasting momentum** These teams deeply understood the customer, the objective, the constraints, and the tradeoffs. They grasped the reasoning behind earlier decisions, enabling swift action because they shared a unified understanding of reality. This distinction is more significant than it might seem. Crucial decisions often begin as rich conversations. Participants understand the nuances, alternatives, and tradeoffs that shaped the outcome. Then the decision moves through the organization. A conversation becomes notes, which turn into a deck, then a plan. Along the way, meaning and interpretation inevitably fade. It reminds me of the telephone game many of us played as children. Someone starts with a simple question like, "How is your pizza?" After several well-meaning handoffs, the message evolves into, "Where is your tuba?" Everyone acts with good intentions, but context and understanding erode. Reflecting on this, I realize much of my role as a CEO has been about restoring context. Great teams create great ideas. Those ideas travel through conversations, notes, summaries, recommendations, and plans. Leadership helps keep the original understanding connected to the work so momentum continues to build rather than reset. Speed may be what we see, but context is the force behind it. **The new stakes of speed in the AI era** Scott Galloway once remarked that many successful companies are led by a small group of intensely impatient individuals. I smiled when I read that, recognizing the energy immediately. Over time, I have learned that impatience becomes an asset only when everyone shares the same understanding. Without alignment, urgency turns into noise, and energy is wasted as teams revisit the same questions repeatedly. This lesson is even more critical today, as organizations leverage more automation tools and handle unprecedented amounts of information. We are entering an era where systems can generate content, summarize decisions, route tasks, and support judgment at speeds unimaginable just a few years ago. It is tempting to assume faster systems will naturally create faster companies. In truth, faster systems amplify the need for context. When decisions are made quickly, context ensures speed remains cohesive. It defines the problem, clarifies success, identifies tradeoffs, and explains the reasoning behind earlier actions. I feel this deeply as Adam and I build another company, Precise. The challenge is rarely generating ideas. Every customer conversation introduces a new possibility, and every product discussion reveals another path worth exploring. The challenge is deciding which opportunities deserve attention and which decisions create the foundation for everything that follows. You can move as fast as you want, but at some point, you have to pick your lane, square some circles, and decide what's actually the thing. That is why one of our investors has a habit of interrupting long discussions with a simple question: "What's the thing? What's the thing?" I love that question because it instantly restores context. It brings the conversation back to the reason we are in the room in the first place. It transforms a discussion about possibilities into a discussion about priorities. And once context returns, speed has somewhere productive to go. **The advantage that compounds**This may be the defining leadership challenge of the years ahead. Every company is, at its core, a collection of decisions. Stronger context leads to better decisions. The companies that thrive will be those that capture, preserve, and share context at the pivotal moments when critical decisions are made. I still believe speed is the advantage. If anything, I believe it more strongly now than I did twenty years ago. Experience has shown me that context is what allows speed to compound. So yes, act with urgency. Just ensure your context keeps pace, or you may find yourself searching for that tuba.