The Hare & the Tortoise: The Collaborative Investment Strategy

Do you know the story of the hare and the tortoise?

Most people think it's about speed.

Really, it's about assumptions.

One moves fast, burns out, and loses.

The other moves with focus, consistency and wins.

Not because it was faster.

Because it never lost the plot.

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In investment, we often play the hare.

You buy into a company once it’s attractive enough to justify your capital.

And then, almost immediately, you start again.

Tear it apart.

Bring in your own brigade.

Shift the culture, the cadence, the structure.

Maybe it needed to happen.

Maybe the founder had taken it as far as they could.

Maybe the leadership team didn’t have the range for the next phase.

But what happens next is predictable.

Productivity slumps.

Sales slow.

The team scrambles to adjust while quietly grieving what they’ve just lost.

Knowledge leaves.

Morale drops.

Trust dissolves.

And it’s all written off as the cost of transformation.

I’ve seen this play out. More than once.

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And the truth is, it doesn’t have to be this way

How about a collaborative investment strategy..

Most staff know what needs to change.

They’re just not asked.

Or they’ve been trained not to speak.

Or the founder, who, yes, deserves credit, was too attached to make the hard calls.

The beloved feature that never sold.

The sunk-cost market expansion that’s quietly failing.

The four-year app build that’s still "nearly ready."

It often takes new owners two years to see what was already visible.

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What if you didn’t waste that time?

What if you invited the team in from day one?

Told them the truth. Asked for theirs.

Created a window where people could name what they know—without fear.

Where the future wasn’t something done to them,

but with them.

They will show up for that.

They will tell you what’s worth saving—and what isn’t.

They’ll help you move faster, not slower.

They’ll help you keep the soul of what works—and let go of what doesn’t.

That’s how you keep the trust.

That’s how you avoid two years of drift.

Not by softening your strategy.

By sharpening your process.

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Of course, not every company can be saved.

Some are already over, even if no one’s said it out loud yet.

But many aren’t.

They’re just stuck.

And in those cases, what gets them unstuck isn’t a machete, it’s a map.

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This is what we explore inside Spark Space.

A different kind of intelligence.

A systems aware lens on leadership.

A refusal to accept destruction as the only path to growth.

Across the blog, we talk about adaptive structures.

Pattern fluency.

Emotional clarity in business.

What it means to lead without collateral damage.

We ask:

What if the way we scale could feel better for everyone involved?

What if operational discipline and emotional depth weren’t in tension,

but in partnership?

Slow doesn’t mean sluggish.

Collaborative doesn’t mean soft.

The tortoise didn’t win because it was slow.

It won because it didn’t waste time recovering from its own missteps.

If you want to move faster, start by listening.

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-Layla