Urgency By Default
I read this X post today and smiled:
When Sam Altman was at Y Combinator, he built a script that monitored how quickly the best founders and worst founders replied to their emails.
— Gabriel Jarrosson (@GJarrosson) December 20, 2025
"It was a difference of minutes versus days on average response time" pic.twitter.com/5NRMptPbwM
It’s something we talk a lot about as a team: does urgency (in this instance, measured by speed of response) correlate with success amongst founders?
I’ve never had the data to prove it, but my anecdotal read is that the answer is a resounding “Yes”.
First, though, consider the counter argument. Don’t the best founders prioritise? Maybe they’re not responding to your email because they have more important things to do? Maybe they’re in the middle of something and don’t want to break flow? Maybe they’re looking after themselves and taking some time away from the desk?
Maybe. Maybe all those things apply at specific times with specific people, and maybe they’re valid excuses. But I don’t think the general pattern holds.
The highest intensity, most “up for it” founders have an unbelievable bias towards urgency. They know time is of the essence, and their default mentality is to smash through stuff as quickly as possible. They get shit done with incredible speed.
I can’t not (forgive terrible English…) believe that character trait correlates with faster learning cycles, faster build, faster customer follow-up, faster team direction, etc. Sure, maybe they are a blink slower on something “more important” because they’re prioritising urgency.
But I’d take that any day of the week.