Move Fast and Break Things

Move fast and break things: Facebook's early motto favoring speed and iteration over caution and polish, accepting that some things will break as the price of moving quickly.

Why it matters

Speed is a startup's main advantage over incumbents, and a bias to action beats endless deliberation. But the phrase fell out of favor as scale made breaking things costly, a reminder that the right pace depends on the stakes.

For example

Early Facebook shipped constantly and accepted that things would break, trading polish for the speed that let it outrun rivals.

Go deeper

The Lean Startup theleanstartup.com · book Move Fast and Break Things is part of the build-measure-learn method Eric Ries lays out for building under uncertainty. Open theleanstartup.com →

Related terms

Also in Starting Up

See how founders actually handle this on Founder life, part of the Starting Up hub.

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