Patience as a superpower

Good morning, Riveters.

This week’s Rivet Report digs into an idea most founders avoid talking about: why speed isn’t your real advantage and why strategic patience quietly shapes the companies that last.

Plus, you'll discover what the latest shifts in the economy, AI policy, and startup funding mean for your next move. We also break down a simple growth play you can run today to turn silent users into a retention win.

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Economy
The U.S. jobs report released this week showed that 119,000 jobs were added in September, below many forecasts, but also revealed delays in data and structural uncertainty due to the recent government shutdown.
What this means to you:
If you’re scaling a startup or planning hiring ramp-ups, assume weaker signals ahead and build in an extra buffer for cost and timing rather than assuming momentum continues.
Source: The Guardian

AI
Federal policymakers are moving toward an executive order that would pre-empt or challenge state-level AI regulations, raising questions about regulatory clarity and speed of adoption for AI platforms.
What this means to you:
If your product uses AI or you plan to deploy in multiple states, this shift means regulation could change fast. Plan for legal and compliance costs earlier, and don’t assume local rules stay stable.
Source: Associated Press

Startups
While smaller rounds continue, the quality bar is rising, and more capital is going toward AI-enabled companies with scale. Capital scarcity for non-differentiated startups is growing.
What this means to you:
If you’re fundraising, reinforce the unique advantage of your startup and how fast you can scale or differentiate. Investors are less willing to back “me-too” ideas. If you’re bootstrapping, know that fewer distractions means a sharper path to prove yourself.
Source: Axios

Founders talk about speed like it’s the end-all, be-all. But the quiet truth is that speed isn’t what separates the great companies from the restless ones.

Patience does, most people just misuse it.

Ask ten founders what they’re building, and you’ll get confident stories about product, growth, and full roadmaps. Ask those same founders how long those plans will take, and the answer shifts into something vague.

That gap between ambition and time is where most bad decisions happen.

Strategic patience is not waiting around. It’s choosing your tempo, knowing when to pause, when to move—and when sticking to the plan is the smartest thing you can do.

Why does this matter now? Because dashboards give instant feedback. Competitors love to announce half-baked wins.

Investors push for signals that can be measured by Friday.

It has never been harder to stay steady, and it has never been more important.

Founders learn this the hard way when a team rebuilds a product three times in eight months.

Each rebuild was driven by some new shiny idea or a competitor’s headline.

Strategic patience forces a different question: Are you reacting or deciding?

The companies that play the long game don’t guess. They experiment fast but commit slow. They run quick tests, but they don’t let short-term bumps rewrite the strategy every week.

They protect the parts of the business that take time to compound.

The things you can’t rebuild overnight.

Think about product roadmaps. A big customer asks for a custom feature that drags you off course. Saying yes feels smart. Saying no is painful. But saying no protects your future.

That is strategic patience.

Think about content and brand. You publish for a month and panic when it doesn’t spike traffic. So you pivot, then pivot again, and a third time.

The founder who sticks with it builds an engine.

The founder who chases quick hits builds noise.

Think about hiring. Many leaders rush senior hires because they feel behind. Then they spend the next year unwinding the mistake. Waiting another quarter can save more time than it costs.

Strategic patience is not a calm guru mindset. It is a practical operating system.

Move fast when the decision is small or easy to undo. Slow down when the choice is permanent or expensive to reverse. This simple filter clears more fog than any planning framework.

The funny thing is that strategic patience looks boring from the outside. Nothing dramatic. No surprise pivots. No frantic, “We’re reinventing ourselves” speech.

The market rewards that kind of consistency.

Customers trust it. Teams thrive in it.

And founders sleep better because they aren’t rebuilding the plane every quarter.

If you take one thing from this idea, let it be this: Your plan probably doesn’t need to be faster.

It probably needs more time to work.

Let the other founders chase noise. You choose the long game.

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Turn your quietest customers into a growth channel.

Most founders chase new leads before they’ve listened to the people already paying them. This week’s play is simple: run a “silent churn audit.” Pull a list of customers who haven’t logged in, used a feature, or responded to support in the last 30 to 60 days. Reach out to ten of them with a short human message asking what’s getting in their way.

You’ll uncover friction, missing guidance, and small fixes that unlock retention fast. Reducing silent churn is cheaper than acquiring new users and gives you clearer insight into what actually drives long-term growth.