#25. Culture Builds Unicorns. Trust Builds Brands. Reps Build Careers. 🔁
Inside the systems that create lasting momentum—at work, in teams, and in markets.
Welcome to the 25th free edition of More than Buzzwords—your weekly dose of sharp, no-fluff startup wisdom! ✂️
This week’s edition dives into what really moves the needle in 2025: consistent execution, deep trust, and smarter systems.
Whether you’re a founder, operator, team lead, or someone navigating the modern workplace—these insights go beyond surface-level tactics and challenge how we build, invest, and lead.
Here’s what’s in store:
🔹 Sharp Takes from Sharp Minds – 4 tweets that unpack culture, trust, AI-driven teams, and why consistency > novelty.
🔹 Spotlight on a Startup – Smallcase is making investing effortless and expert-led—here’s how.
🔹 Adolescence on Netflix – A haunting, thought-provoking show that quietly holds up a mirror to our lives, corporate culture, and team dynamics.
Let’s get into it.👇
Sharp Takes from Sharp Minds ✂️🧠
Just like every week, I’m back with a handpicked set of tweets from industry experts—tweets that’ll make you think, rethink, and act.
Whether you're a founder, product manager, team lead, strategist, or an aspiring entrepreneur, these insights hit hard and stick.
If you’re only reading 4 tweets this week, make them these.👇
1️⃣ Courage Requires Capability 🦾
If you wish to have a culture where people dare to swim in the deep end of the oceans, you will need a culture that teaches them how to swim.
Every founder and leader wants a bold, risk-taking, innovative culture. But only a few leaders put in the work to create the conditions for it.
This tweet nails the disconnect: you can’t expect people to take bold risks if you haven’t equipped them with the skills, safety, and support to try. Guide their first steps, and then see how they sprint.
Psychological safety, training, clarity, and mentorship—these are the “swimming lessons.” Without them, boldness becomes fear, not innovation. If you want a team that swims in deep waters, first make sure they won’t drown.
Bold cultures are built, not wished into existence.
2️⃣ The Hidden KPI: Trust per Click 🤝
The best offer.
The best sales script.
The best lead generation.
They can't save you.
Why? We are in a trust economy.
Nothing works without trust.
Keep building.
It doesn’t matter how great your offer is or how clever your sales pitch sounds—if people don’t trust you, it’s game over.
We’re no longer in the information economy—we’re in the trust economy. People buy from brands that show up with consistency, values, and proof. Not just noise.
Think about TATA. They’ve built everything—from steel to salt to clothing—on one foundation: trust. TATA doesn’t need aggressive marketing tactics or clickbait promises.
Generations of Indians choose them because they believe in what the brand stands for. Reliability, ethics, long-term thinking. That’s their true funnel.
This tweet is your reminder: Forget the shiny tactics for a moment. Focus on the stuff that sticks—your track record, your intentions, your consistency.
Trust compounds. And in today’s crowded market, it’s the only real advantage that lasts.
3️⃣ AI Is the Invisible Co-founder 🤖
The optimal startup team in 2025 is 5 people.
1 engineer. 1 designer. 1 product lead. 1 growth lead. 1 ops person
That's it.
The engineer starts the day in Cursor. They paste in a product idea, and Cursor instantly generates the scaffolding. They edit inline with AI, refactor entire files with a single prompt, and navigate the repo by chatting with it. Debugging feels like pair programming. Documentation is auto-generated. By EOD, the idea is live. No waiting, the team is stoked.
The designer doesn’t stop at Figma. They write the copy, shape the brand, talk to users, and launch prototypes in V0/Replit. Sometimes they skip the handoff entirely. Vibe coding is real, and it’s fast.
The product lead jumps between defining success metrics, community building, replying to support tickets, and building the strategy/tactics to build a big company. They are the glue.
Growth lead is a mix of creative and technical. They are vibe marketing by hiring agents, setting up analytics, rewriting landing pages, testing distribution ideas, finding creators to work with and coming up with outlandish ideas to get people on social to stop scrolling on social and "look at me".
Ops runs the quiet layer under everything. Contracts, support, tools, hiring, money. No chaos. Just speed.
You don’t feel the size of the team. You feel the surface area.
AI is everywhere, it's the co-founder to everyone on the team but in the background. It writes, supports, designs, scouts, and summarizes. No meetings about what to do. Just people doing it.
Instagram sold for $1B with 13 people.
The next $1B company will get there with 5.
This is how it plays out now.
Not theoretical. Not the future.
Already happening.
This isn’t a fantasy—it’s already happening. Startups in 2025 won’t just be lean; they’ll be lightning fast. The best teams today aren’t bloated with hierarchy and handoffs. They’re tight, multidisciplinary, and AI-augmented at every level.
This tweet gives you a front-row view of what modern execution looks like. A designer writing copy. A product lead answering support tickets. A growth lead shipping memes and rewriting landing pages.
Everyone is in build mode—no endless syncs, no approvals, no silos.
The AI layer? Quietly supercharging everyone. Helping with code, copy, analytics, research—without stepping into the spotlight.
Instagram sold for $1B with 13 people. The next $1B company might do it with 5.
The future isn’t more people. It’s more output per person—with AI as the force multiplier.
4️⃣ The Secret Isn’t Strategy—It’s Reps. 🔁
You don't need another new business strategy. You need 1 tested strategy executed 100 times. Every day. Nonstop. For a decade.
Most people don’t fail because they picked the wrong strategy—they fail because they never stuck with any strategy long enough.
This tweet is a reminder that consistency eats novelty for breakfast. Everyone’s chasing the next hack, the new playbook, the viral unlock. But what actually moves the needle? Repeating what works. Relentlessly.
Think of McDonald’s. Think of Amul. They didn’t pivot every six months. They doubled down on what delivered and did it again. And again. And again.
One strategy. A decade of reps. That’s how real momentum is built.
That’s a wrap on this week’s tweets! Which one was your favorite? Drop it in the comments.
Now that we’ve soaked in some hot takes and real-time lessons, let’s shift gears and spotlight a startup that’s simplifying investing in the most impressive way. 🚀
Spotlight on a Startup: Smallcase 💼
Investing made simple, smart, and accessible for all
Let’s face it—investing in the stock market can feel intimidating.
What should I buy? Is now the right time? Can I trust that random finance YouTuber?
These are some concerns everyone has when they’re first stepping into the ever-changing world of stocks.
That’s exactly the problem Smallcase is solving. Founded in 2015 by Vasanth Kamath, Anugrah Shrivastava, and Rohan Gupta, Smallcase is making stock investing simple, personalized, and research-backed—without all the guesswork.
Think of Smallcase like Netflix, but for investing.
Instead of picking individual stocks, Smallcase gives you ready-made portfolios of stocks and ETFs, called “smallcases.” Each smallcase is based on a theme or strategy—like low volatility, dividend yields, or even long-term growth.
It’s built for everyday investors who want expert-curated portfolios, not random stock tips.
Plus, it works seamlessly with top Indian brokers like Zerodha, Groww, AngelOne, and others. You invest directly via your existing demat account—no extra steps or new apps required.
Wondering what makes Smallcase different?
Backed by Experts: Portfolios are created by India’s leading financial professionals and research firms.
Customizable: You can edit, rebalance, or even build your own smallcase from scratch.
One-Click Investing: You can buy up to 50 stocks in just one click. Super convenient, super quick.
Options for Everyone: Whether you're investing ₹5,000 or ₹50,000, there's a smallcase to match your needs and risk level.
Smallcase is not just about access—it’s about making smart investing feel effortless.
With millions of investors across India using the platform, Smallcase has become a go-to name in India’s growing wealth-tech space. It’s truly a gamechanger in the fintech ecosystem.
It’s especially popular with new-age retail investors who want to make smarter choices without spending hours researching the market.
In March 2025, Smallcase raised $50 million in Series D funding, led by Elev8 Venture Partners. Other backers include State Street Global Advisors, Niveshaay AIF, Faering Capital, and Arkam Ventures.
The goal?
Expand investment offerings across asset classes—think mutual funds, fixed deposits, global equities, and even bonds.
Reach new investor segments with unique, research-driven strategies through more ecosystem partnerships and wealth platforms.
So, what’s next for Smallcase?
Smallcase isn’t stopping at stock baskets.
They’re aiming to become India’s go-to platform for structured, expert-led investing across all asset classes. From young professionals just getting started to seasoned investors looking for smarter diversification—Smallcase wants to be the platform everyone trusts.
With solid funding, a growing user base, and an intuitive product, Smallcase is on track to redefine how India thinks about long-term investing.
If you've been waiting for a simpler way to invest, this might be your sign.
Before we wrap up, let’s shift from the world of investing to something a little unexpected—but deeply relevant.
Every now and then, a piece of content comes along that hits harder than any productivity hack or growth strategy—and Adolescence on Netflix is exactly that.
It’s not just a gripping thriller—it’s a mirror to our systems, cultures, and unspoken dynamics. Let’s unpack it. 👇
🎬 Adolescence on Netflix: A Gut-Punching Thriller with Quiet Career Lessons
A show about a 13-year-old boy accused of murder might not seem like it belongs in a career newsletter. But stay with me.
Netflix’s Adolescence is one of the most haunting, raw, and socially reflective series I’ve seen in a while. Shot almost entirely in a continuous take (think Birdman-style), it’s been making waves all over the internet.
The show pulls you into the room with its characters—no flashy cuts, no over-the-top dramatics—just long, tense silences, subtle glances, and painful truths. It’s not an easy watch, but it’s a necessary one.
The show tells the story of Jamie, a 13-year-old boy arrested for the murder of a female classmate. What unfolds is not just a crime investigation—it’s a deep, unsettling look at how social media, algorithmic rabbit holes, and unchecked cultural biases are shaping a generation of boys.
It holds up a mirror to a society that often looks away.
But here's the bridge to the corporate world 👇
What struck me—beyond the brilliant direction and emotional depth—was how Adolescence quietly holds lessons for the systems we’re all a part of.
Whether you're leading a team, building a product, or navigating workplace dynamics, the show challenges you to think about:
👉 Environment > Intention: Jamie didn’t grow up evil. He grew up online. In workplaces, too, the culture we allow (or ignore) shapes behavior far more than we think. Toxicity, exclusion, silence—they don’t need loud voices to thrive. They just need room.
👉 Biases Start Early—And Run Deep: Just like in Adolescence, many systems (corporate, educational, algorithmic) quietly teach people what’s "normal."
If you’re in a position of influence, this is your reminder: the systems you build are teaching someone something. What is your company normalizing—consciously or not?
👉 Not Everyone Shows Their Struggles the Same Way: One of the most emotionally charged takeaways from Adolescence is how much is left unsaid. Jamie isn’t expressive. He isn’t “acting out.”
But inside, there’s chaos brewing. In a professional setting, we often expect people to ask for help or share when things go wrong—but not everyone knows how. As leaders, being observant, present, and emotionally intelligent is just as important as being strategic.
At just four episodes, Adolescence doesn’t offer easy answers—but it does offer clarity. And in many ways, that’s more powerful.
If you’re looking for a gripping, heart-wrenching watch that lingers long after the credits roll—and makes you rethink how systems influence behavior—this one’s worth your time.
This brings us to the end of this edition of More than Buzzwords. I hope you found some great insights and valuable tips to kickstart or progress in your career.
Subscribe and stay tuned for your weekly dose of no-fluff startup lessons—delivered straight to your inbox!
Know someone who’s always on the lookout for valuable career insights? Share this newsletter with them!
For more insights from my journey, follow me on LinkedIn. And if you have any feedback or questions, feel free to drop me an email at saurabh.substack.2407@gmail.com —I’d love to hear from you!