Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Startups must intentionally slow product development to invest in scale and quality

Julia Enthoven · 20VC: Kapwing Founder Julia Enthoven on Why Marketing Innovation Is As Important As Product Innovation, Why Every Company Is Becoming A Media Company & The Benefits Of Not Raising Money Too Early · Sep 27, 2019 · at 10:28

Julia Enthoven, co-founder of video editing startup Kapwing, discusses transitioning from early-stage rapid iteration to deliberate investments in product quality and infrastructure.

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“This approach has been great for solving some problems and it's good for getting early traction, but other problems just take longer to solve. So I do think that like we have refined our iterative approach to product development, and in some ways, we've started to move slowly in places where it makes sense to move slowly, like making sure we're investing in quality, performance, scale, and a deeper competitive vote without losing that step function changes that set us apart in the beginning.”

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