---
schema: 1
type: term
title: '**faster horses**'
description: >-
  **Faster horses** — in Nabeel Hyatt's innovation framework, borrowed from Rory
  Sutherland — refers to **incremental improvement**: making an existing product
  or category a little better rather than creating something genuinely new. Most
  venture funding flows toward this type of innovation, and most of it gets
  arbitraged out of existence within a few years.
canonical: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/faster-horses-8ab2e8db9633'
markdown: >-
  https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/faster-horses-8ab2e8db9633.md
llms: null
parent: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt'
channel: everyinc
updated: '2026-10-23T22:12:35.346Z'
language: null
children: []
---


# \*\*faster horses\*\*

Canonical: https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/faster-horses-8ab2e8db9633

Parent: [Channel index](https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt)

## Definition

**Faster horses** — in Nabeel Hyatt's innovation framework, borrowed from Rory Sutherland — refers to **incremental improvement**: making an existing product or category a little better rather than creating something genuinely new. Most venture funding flows toward this type of innovation, and most of it gets arbitraged out of existence within a few years.

<Section title="Where the phrase comes from">**Faster horses** is the first of three types of innovation — borrowed from Rory Sutherland — that Nabeel Hyatt uses to describe what he hunts for as an investor. It names **incremental improvement**: making an existing thing a bit better rather than inventing a new category.</Section> <Section title="Why Nabeel avoids it">In this episode, most venture funding flows toward faster horses, and Nabeel says most of those bets get "arbitraged out of existence" within four years — the improvements are so obvious and so crowded that they stop being defensible. That's why he steers away from this category and instead looks for what he calls **Japanese toilets of AI**: products that surprise you with delight before you knew you needed them, like Granola. He contrasts both with the third type, **teleportation** — the grand, obvious dream like Cruise and self-driving cars that everyone wants but nobody knows how to build yet.</Section> <KeyPoints> - **Faster horses = incremental improvement** on something that already exists. - Most venture funding goes here, and most of it gets arbitraged away within four years. - Nabeel's real target is the opposite: subtle, hard-to-execute new experiences like Granola.</KeyPoints>