by Chief Financial Officer Chia-Hua (Phyllis) Chen
Last time, I talked about the growth mirage—when impressive metrics hide unsustainable costs. This time, let’s talk about another illusion: the illusion of speed.
In startups, speed is celebrated. “Move fast and break things” sounds heroic—but in AI EdTech, moving fast without reflection often means breaking trust. Every model retrain or quick feature launch carries invisible costs—not just in compute, but in coherence.
The Cult of Speed
Speed feels like progress. Founders chase momentum, investors reward velocity, and teams love the rush of shipping fast. But when experiments outpace evaluation, you’re not scaling learning—you’re scaling noise.
Velocity without validation just multiplies mistakes.
And in education, those mistakes reach real learners, not just dashboards.
The Second Burn Rate
We all track cash burn. But few measure the second burn rate—credibility.
When you stretch your system too far, you start eroding trust: from institutions, learners, and even your own team. Once that happens, no amount of funding can buy it back.
Sustainable Velocity
True speed isn’t about going slower—it’s about staying recoverable.
It means your system—technical, financial, and human—can stabilize after each push.
Ask yourself:
- How many experiments actually improved learning outcomes?
- How long until margins recover after each release?
- Are we learning faster than we’re burning?
That’s what sustainable velocity looks like—movement with feedback, not just motion.
The Takeaway
In AI EdTech, speed gets attention, but endurance builds companies.
The real challenge isn’t how fast you scale—it’s how wisely you sustain it.