Festina Lente: The Counterintuitive Philosophy Startups Need Now

A diverse group of smiling young professionals standing together with raised arms in celebration, in front of a large arched window. Text on the image reads: GoGlobal – Born in Miami, Built For The World. Festina Lente: The Counterintuitive Philosophy Startups Need Now. — At GoGlobal, we believe the future belongs to those who move with purpose and pace. ‘Festina Lente’—make haste slowly—is not a contradiction but a strategy. Build fast, but build wisely.

We live in a world that glorifies speed. Startup culture, in particular, is built around urgency—raising faster, scaling faster, and exiting faster. From “move fast and break things” to “fail fast, fail often,” entrepreneurs are conditioned to think that slowness is weakness. In such an environment, “festina lente”—a Latin phrase meaning “make haste slowly”—sounds almost heretical.

And yet, I believe it’s precisely what we need now.

A Timeless Paradox in a Hyper-Speed World

The phrase festina lente dates back to Emperor Augustus, who used it to guide his decisions as he rebuilt Rome. The contradiction is deliberate: be swift but never careless. Move forward, but don’t sprint into ruin.

The principle urges balance between action and contemplation, progress and patience.

Applied to entrepreneurship, it’s a call to reject mindless momentum and instead embrace intentional acceleration.

In today’s volatile world—where founders face not only economic headwinds but also cultural shifts, geopolitical shocks, and environmental urgency—speed alone is no longer a virtue. It must be accompanied by depth, resilience, and a long view.

The Hidden Costs of Moving Too Fast

We’ve seen what happens when companies chase speed without structure. Think of startups that raised billions without a viable business model, hired aggressively without a clear culture, or scaled before truly understanding their market. Many of them imploded under the weight of their own velocity.

Speed can disguise fragility.

And in a world of short attention spans and capital scarcity, fragility is fatal.

At GoGlobal, I often work with founders from emerging markets—places where slowness is sometimes inevitable due to bureaucracy, funding gaps, or infrastructure. But I’ve come to realize that this perceived limitation is also a strength. It forces them to validate their business deeply, build with constraints, and develop long-term thinking from day one. In many ways, they are already practicing Festina lente—even if they don’t know the phrase.

Rethinking Growth: From Vanity to Sustainability

This isn’t about stalling innovation or resisting ambition. It’s about resisting the addiction to vanity growth.

We’ve created a culture where founders measure success by how fast they can raise their next round, not by how well they understand their customers or how sustainably they can generate revenue.

Festina lente invites us to reframe growth as something to be mastered—not hacked.

It asks:

Can you scale without compromising your values or team wellbeing?
Can you lead with conviction while leaving space for reflection?
Can you make decisions that serve your vision, not just today, but five years from now?

These aren’t romantic questions. They’re strategic ones.

The Future Belongs to the Intentional

We’re entering a new era of entrepreneurship—one shaped by trust, transparency, and long-term thinking. Investors are becoming more selective, customers are becoming more conscious, and talent is seeking purpose, not just perks.

In this environment, founders who embrace the Festina lente mindset have an edge. They take the time to build strong foundations—business models rooted in real needs, cultures that don’t crack under pressure, and products that evolve with care, not chaos.

They’re not slow. They’re deliberate.

And they’re the ones who will last.

A Final Thought

As a founder myself—one who built a tech company in the early 2000s when there was no playbook—I’ve lived both the adrenaline of speed and the wisdom of pause. Today, as the CEO of GoGlobal, I work with entrepreneurs who dream big. I encourage them to be bold—but also to remember:

The real luxury isn’t raising fast. It’s building something that endures.

So, festina lente, founders. The future isn’t won in a sprint. It’s earned in the careful, courageous steps you take today.

Esra Talu, Founder and CEO of GoGlobal, smiling in front of the GoGlobal office in Miami. The city skyline with modern architecture is visible in the background.

About Esra Talu

Esra Talu is a tech entrepreneur, author, and the Founder and CEO of GoGlobal, a boutique advisory company based in Miami Beach, USA. With over 25 years of experience building and advising startups across emerging markets and global ecosystems, she is dedicated to helping founders grow sustainable businesses that scale with purpose. Her latest eBook, Breaking Boundaries: How I Built a Startup and Paved the Way for Others, is now available on Amazon.