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The Real Tech Race: Speed, Structure, and Security in the Digital Age

By jili tutorial · September 19, 2026

The Real Tech Race: Speed, Structure, and Security in the Digital Age

Introduction: A Summit Built for Speed

When the inaugural SOFTSWISS Tech Race Summit opened its doors in Warsaw last week, the venue itself told a story. Held at the glass-walled Koneser Business Center in the heart of the city, the modern setting hinted at a future‑focused agenda. But it was the stage design that truly set the tone: two vertical stacks of lights—deliberately styled like the “Christmas Tree” starting lights of a drag race—flanked the speaker area, spelling out “Tech” on one side and “Race” on the other.

As the room darkened and laser‑like animations danced across the screen, the summit’s logo appeared to be engraved in real time, leaving an impression that lingered far beyond the opening moments. SBC News was present to capture the full event, and the insights that emerged from the day’s first keynote—delivered by Ivan Montik, Founder of SOFTSWISS—offer a powerful blueprint for leaders navigating today’s hyper‑competitive landscape.

The Fundamental Shift: Technology Is No Longer the Decisive Factor

In a world where artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and advanced analytics are increasingly accessible to any organisation with a budget, Montik’s opening message was deliberately provocative. “The real tech race is not won solely by technology anymore,” he declared. “It is won by the speed of execution and decision‑making.”

Montik is not a newcomer to this reality. Over the past two decades, he has founded or co‑founded four companies, including SOFTSWISS (founded in 2009) and the blockchain payment infrastructure firm CoinsPaid. From that vantage point, he has watched the competitive landscape evolve. In the early days, owning proprietary technology could give a company a significant moat. Today, powerful tools are at the fingertips of almost anyone, meaning the bottleneck has shifted from access to action.

Why Speed of Execution Matters More Than Ever

The logic is straightforward: if your competitors can harness the same generative AI, cloud infrastructure, or data platforms as you, the only differentiator left is how quickly you can turn those tools into real‑world results. Montik puts it bluntly: “What lets some companies adapt faster and others not? It is the flexibility of the management structures, how you approach your teams, and how fast you, as a visionary, can take decisions. Today, without fast decisions, you can’t do business anymore.”

This is not hyperbole. In industries such as iGaming and fintech—where regulatory shifts, user expectations, and cyber threats can change overnight—a company that waits a week to act on an insight may find the opportunity already taken. The window for capitalising on a new trend has shrunk from months to days, and sometimes to hours.

The “Now or Never” Mindset: From Deliberation to Decisiveness

Montik’s advice to leaders is unflinching: “In order to avoid being outpaced, you and your team need to learn to make really fast decisions. Not tomorrow, not next week. Today, and right now.”

This urgency does not mean recklessness. Rather, it requires a cultural shift away from over‑analysis and bureaucratic approval chains. Some decisions will inevitably fail. But in Montik’s view, the alternative—watching a competitor seize the same opportunity successfully—is far worse. “Technology alone doesn’t create value anymore. Decisions do.”

The Cost of Hesitation: A Real‑World Illustration

Consider a typical scenario in the iGaming sector: a new AI‑powered personalisation engine hits the market, promising to boost player retention by 20%. The engineering team sees its potential, but the decision to integrate it must travel up through three layers of management, past a risk committee, and back down again. By the time approval arrives, a rival has already launched the feature and captured the early adopter buzz. The window is closed, and the market share loss begins.

Montik’s message is clear: speed must be baked into the decision‑making DNA of the organisation, not treated as an occasional priority.

Building Speed Into the Company’s Structure

Speed cannot be an afterthought. It must be architected into how the company operates. Montik advocates for a structural approach that compresses management layers and empowers small, autonomous teams.

The 10‑Person Team Rule

For companies with hundreds or even thousands of employees, Montik recommends breaking the management chain into tightly knit groups of no more than ten people. The rationale is twofold:

  1. Information Velocity – When a leader’s vision or a critical insight must travel through multiple layers, it gets diluted, delayed, or distorted. Smaller teams retain and disseminate information more accurately.
  2. Decision Ownership – Each small group has clear authority to make decisions within its domain, eliminating the need to escalate every choice to higher management.

In Montik’s experience, this structure creates faster decisions while maintaining accountability. It also fosters a culture where team members feel responsible for outcomes rather than simply following orders.

A Concrete Example: SOFTSWISS’s AI Adoption

SOFTSWISS has already tested this model in practice, specifically around the rollout of artificial intelligence across its business. The company identified a problem: AI tools were being used by different teams, but without a clear governance structure to ensure they delivered consistent results.

The solution was to split the management layer responsible for AI into two distinct verticals:

Within a year, each team had designated an “AI‑adept” member responsible for identifying how new technologies could apply to that team’s specific needs and for using them to improve performance against key KPIs. The result was a clearer structure, faster adoption, and more efficient use of AI across the entire organisation.

Security: The Non‑Negotiable Foundation

After pushing the audience to embrace speed, Montik slammed the brakes on one critical point: security must never be sacrificed for speed.

“My advice to you is to never sacrifice resilience for fast growth. Believe me,” he said, speaking from painful personal experience.

The CoinsPaid Incident: A Wake‑Up Call

CoinsPaid, the blockchain payment infrastructure company Montik helped co‑found, had experienced several years of explosive growth. Then, on a Friday afternoon, the unthinkable happened. The Lazarus Group—a notorious North Korean cybercrime syndicate—targeted the company and stole $37.3 million.

That moment became a defining crucible. The aftermath included sleepless nights, a fundamental re‑evaluation of priorities, and a complete overhaul of the company’s security philosophy. CoinsPaid adopted “security by design” —meaning security considerations were embedded into every decision, from technology choices to HR policies, rather than bolted on after the fact.

When Lazarus attempted another attack years later, the company was ready. The improved defences held firm, and no funds were lost.

The Dual Reality of AI: Opportunity and Threat

Montik’s story serves as a stark reminder that the same tools that enable rapid innovation also empower malicious actors. AI can help detect fraud faster, but it can also be used to craft highly convincing phishing campaigns or to automate vulnerability scanning. Leaders must recognise that speed without a security framework is a race toward disaster.

Implementing Security by Design

How does “security by design” look in practice? Montik emphasises that it requires:

Conclusion: What the Real Tech Race Looks Like

If we synthesise Montik’s keynote into a single takeaway, it is this: winning the tech race of today is not about having the fastest technology. It is about having the right structures to act on it, the confidence to make quick decisions before opportunities vanish, and the resilience to protect what you have already built.

Perhaps the modern tech race is not actually about beating the competition. It is a race against the clock—a race to turn an idea into action without compromising the foundations that keep a business moving forward. Speed, structure, and security are the three pillars that separate the leaders from the also‑rans.

For executives, product leaders, and founders looking to thrive in this environment, the path forward is clear: build small, empowered teams; embed decision‑making speed into your culture; and never treat security as an afterthought. The drag race has begun—and the winners will be those who can accelerate without crashing.