#30. Trust, Grit & Tiny Robots: This One’s for the Builders

Explore why trust is the real product-market fit, what Indian startups can teach the world about resilience, and how nanotech is disrupting dental care.

May 23, 2025

Hello, sharp minds! Welcome to the 30th edition of More than Buzzwords — your no-fluff, high-signal scoop from the startup world. 🎯

This week, we’re raising a toast to the builders- the ones who don’t just chase speed, but earn trust. The ones who don’t just talk scale, but embody grit. And yes, the ones bold enough to put nanobots in your mouth. (No, seriously.)

Here’s what’s cooking in this milestone edition:

🔹 Tweets That Cut Deep – We’re unpacking four sharp takes: why AI won’t steal your job (but someone using it might), how to turn goals into daily levers, why Indian founders are built different, and why trust is the real product-market-fit.

🔹 Startup Spotlight – Meet Theranautilus, the Bengaluru-based deeptech startup that’s turning dental care on its head with microscopic robots that fix tooth sensitivity in 10 minutes flat. 🦷🤖

🔹 Big Idea: Resilience > Velocity – Byju’s went from being India’s most valued startup to a cautionary tale. Now, it’s on a mission to rebuild. In a landscape that rewards speed, its story is a reminder that resilience, not velocity, defines the long game.

Whether you’re scaling your startup, steering your career, or somewhere in between, this edition is a reminder that trust compounds, grit wins, and tech doesn’t always have to be flashy to be revolutionary.

Let’s dive in. 👇

Tweets That Cut Deep ⚔️

I’m back with another set of actionable tweets, seasoned with experience-backed insights!

In today’s lineup, we’re diving into macro-trends, tactical productivity, startup strategy, and emotional intelligence. Think of it as a four-course meal for your brain.

Whether you’re a founder, leader, strategist, or job seeker, you’re bound to walk away with at least one new to-do for your growth list.

1. Compete with AI? Nah. Collaborate Instead. 🤖

@hitobs

The impact of AI on jobs isn’t uni dimensional. While some roles will be automated, we’re seeing new positions emerge. The net effect is changing skill requirements, not necessarily fewer jobs.

For job seekers, the message is clear: Develop skills that complement AI rather than compete with it. Problem solving, creativity, domain expertise, and AI literacy will be far more valuable than routine skills that can be automated. Continuous learning is no longer optional.

These are my top two tweets from a long, enriching thread by Hitesh Oberoi, Co-Promoter, MD, and CEO of InfoEdge.

The panic around AI taking over jobs? Totally get it. It’s been loud, it’s been everywhere, and it’s not entirely wrong. But it is incomplete.

What these tweets highlight so well is this: it’s not about fewer jobs, it’s about different jobs. Yes, some roles have become obsolete ever since AI took a giant leap forward. But we often overlook how many new ones it’s created in the process.

More importantly, AI has freed us from the mundane. It's given us time to focus on high-leverage, creative, strategic work instead of spending hours on tasks that can now be automated in seconds.

Bottom line? If you double down on skills that complement AI, like problem-solving, creativity, and domain expertise, you won’t just survive this shift, you’ll thrive in it.

A friend of mine is a great example. She was a full-time content marketer. Today, she spends half her time building GPT-powered tools for content creation- something that wasn’t even in her mental model two years ago.

We’re heading into a world where the most valuable professionals won’t be the ones who work the fastest, but the ones who use AI the smartest. You don’t have to become a prompt engineer overnight. But you do need to understand how to pair your domain know-how with automation.

To borrow a line that says it best:
AI won’t replace you. But someone using AI probably will.

2. From dreams to daily levers. 🧠

@thedankoe

Grab a notebook.

Write out exactly what you want in your future, don't miss a detail.

Then, break it down into goals.

Decades, years, months, weeks, and days.

Every day, write down the 3 levers you can move to create your vision. Then, forget about the goals and execute.

I tried something similar to this last year, not as a rigid planner with color-coded calendars and Gantt charts, but more like a compass. A quiet, consistent nudge to stay pointed in the right direction. And weirdly enough, it made me less anxious.

Before that, I was always oscillating between “I need to think long-term” and “what am I even doing today?” But once I started writing down just 2–3 meaningful levers I could move that day, something shifted. The long-term goals such as career pivots, creative projects, and financial freedom felt less intimidating. More like a path and less like a pressure cooker.

This tweet is basically a startup strategy lesson disguised as self-help:

Don’t obsess over outcomes. Build systems. Move levers. Let compounding do the rest.

What I love most is how universally it applies. Whether you're stuck in a corporate role you want to leave, juggling freelance gigs, or building a passion project at 11 PM- it anchors you. You stop chasing the high of big wins and start enjoying the clarity of small, purposeful actions.

This kind of lever-based thinking doesn't just reduce overwhelm. It builds momentum. Slowly, quietly, but consistently.

So if you’re in a phase where everything feels messy and undefined, this approach can be your map. You don’t have to know every twist of the journey. Just the next three levers to push today.

3. Velocity vs. resilience: choose your market, choose your strategy. 🌍

@tejeshwi_sharma

Having seen startups in both the US and India, here’s what I’ve learned:

In the US, business building is about velocity — move fast or die.

In India, it’s about resilience — the market rewards steady, adaptive builders.

Those who improve daily and endure adversity tend to WIN long term.

If you've ever watched an early-stage founder in India try to build in a low-trust, low-margin, hyper-competitive market… you know resilience isn't a buzzword, it's a survival skill.

This tweet captures a truth that’s often missed in flashy pitch decks: what works in Silicon Valley may not work in Surat. Indian founders often don’t have the luxury of blitzscaling. Instead, they build with grit, jugaad, and a long-game mindset.

Their playbooks aren’t always written in blogs, but in daily iterations, workarounds, and relentless perseverance. You’ll often find Indian startups spending more time earning customer trust than chasing vanity metrics.

If you’re a founder or operator navigating two geographies (or dreaming of going global), this tweet is a gentle nudge: know your market, and shape your strategy accordingly.

4. Trust: the real product-market-fit. 🤝

@hnshah

In product, trust shows up when your tool works the same way at 2 a.m. as it does in the demo. In leadership, it’s when you say “I’ll take care of it” and actually do even when no one’s watching. And in life, it’s when your presence feels like safety, not suspense.

This tweet made me pause. It’s soft, but it hits hard.

We talk a lot about product-market fit, but rarely about trust-market fit. And yet, trust is often the silent force that keeps people coming back, whether to your product, your leadership, or even your presence.

As someone who works closely with early-stage brands, I’ve seen how trust isn’t just built through what you say, it’s built through what consistently shows up when no one’s watching.

A founder I worked with once shared a story that stuck with me: during their beta launch, a bug broke the entire onboarding flow for 48 hours. Instead of hiding behind silence, they personally emailed every single new user explaining what happened, what they were doing to fix it, and how they'd make it right. That moment, oddly enough, led to their first wave of superfans.

Trust wasn’t broken. It was built.

And that extends to leadership too. You don’t have to be the loudest voice in the room to be the most trusted. Sometimes, it’s the quiet consistency- the person who always shows up, keeps their word, and doesn’t stir unnecessary chaos. This person becomes the true anchor in a team.

In product, trust is when your tool works the same way at 2 a.m. as it does in the demo.
In leadership, it’s when “I’ve got this” actually means something.
And in life, it’s when your presence feels like safety, not suspense.

This wraps up this week’s tweet-wisdom! Hope you found some fresh insights, new things to work on, and some new-found motivation to achieve your goals quicker.

Don’t gatekeep this wisdom to yourself! Share it with a friend who’s on a mission to build boldly and stay sane while doing it.

Nothing fuels motivation like seeing real growth in action. So let’s shift gears and spotlight a startup that’s solving real problems in a way that’s both bold and refreshingly original.

🚀 Spotlight on a Startup: Theranautilus 🦷

Tiny Bots. Big Dental Breakthroughs.

What if fixing tooth sensitivity didn’t take months of special toothpaste, but just one 10-minute session? And what if it actually worked?

That’s the radical promise of Theranautilus, a Bengaluru-based, promising deeptech startup that’s swapping out your sensitive toothpaste for… nanobots.

Yes, real, scientifically-controlled nanorobots. And they’re not just here to replace those “for sensitivity” toothpastes, they’re rewriting what dental care could look like for millions.

Born at the crossroads of dentistry and deeptech

Theranautilus was born in the labs of IISc, where Professor Ambarish Ghosh had been studying how to maneuver nanorobots inside living cells. Around the same time, Dr. Peddi Shanmukh Srinivas, then training in endodontic microsurgery, was struggling with the limits of traditional tools used in root canal treatments. He needed more precision but was hitting the wall of human dexterity. Enter nanotech.

One spark of collaboration later, Ghosh, Srinivas, and Dr. Debayan Dasgupta joined forces in 2020 to bring science-fiction-sounding tech into your dentist’s office.

Their first mission was cracking the code on failed root canals. But that quickly led them to an even more universal problem: dental hypersensitivity, which affects nearly 1 in 3 adults globally.

Nanobots that build bone-like structures in your teeth

Here’s where it gets really cool: Theranautilus uses magnetically-guided nanobots, each about a thousand times thinner than a strand of hair, (yes, read that again!) that travel into the tiny pores of a tooth. Once there, they cluster up and trigger a chemical reaction that helps regenerate tooth-like material from the inside.

The result? A long-lasting fix for sensitivity, without the daily brush-and-hope routine.

It’s not just theory. The startup has already shown successful results in animal trials, with human clinical trials scheduled for 2025 and product rollout by 2026.

They’re building two types of products:

A professional-grade clinical device for dentists.
An over-the-counter consumer device (yep, it looks like a toothbrush) for at-home use.

Both are aimed at treating sensitivity in under 10 minutes, and early results show the effect can last for 9–12 months, maybe more. Professor Ghosh notes that the true longevity of the treatment will only become clear once it’s in real-world use when they can observe how everyday wear and tear affects the particles over time.

Backed by believers in bold science

In November 2024, Theranautilus raised $1.2 million in seed funding, led by pi Ventures, with participation from Golden Sparrow Ventures and notable angels like Tracxn’s Abhishek Goyal and Groww’s Lalit Keshre. The capital is fueling clinical development, IP filings, and a high-tech ISO-certified manufacturing facility.

From the looks of it, they’re headed exactly where innovation needs them to go.

What’s next?

While their current focus is on oral care, Theranautilus sees their nanobot platform as a launchpad for much bigger ambitions, including cancer treatment. But for now, they’re starting with the low-hanging fruit: a relatable, high-volume dental problem and a moonshot solution.

In a world where most dental care innovation involves whitening strips or fancy packaging, Theranautilus is bringing something truly novel: science that heals, not just masks.

Keep your eye on this one. They’re not just brushing off problems, they’re solving them.

Image taken from Theranautilus website

I’m very excited to see how Theranautilus moves the healthcare market—especially because I know firsthand that building in healthcare isn’t easy, but it’s deeply fulfilling.

Unlike other sectors, healthcare doesn’t quite follow the usual “fail, learn, repeat” playbook. When you're building in a high-trust market like this, you have to dig deeper, listen more intently, and act with care.

I’m currently building in the healthcare space myself, specifically in mom-baby care, and it’s been a powerful reminder of just how essential trust, inclusivity, and empathy are in this journey.

I often share behind-the-scenes stories and reflections from this journey on LinkedIn. Follow me there to stay in the loop!

Some startups strike gold.
Some struggle to even leave a mark.
And then there are the ones dragged from the top... straight into turbulence.

In this ever-changing startup landscape where founders are building moonshots, chasing PMF, dodging layoffs, and sometimes defending themselves in court, the spotlight moves fast.

And no founder has seen the arc of that spotlight more dramatically than Byju Raveendran.
From edtech icon to internet meme, and now, maybe... a founder in reboot mode?

Let’s talk about what Byju’s 3.0 is really trying to be.

Broke, Not Broken: Is Byju Raveendran Actually Making a Comeback?

“It’s always said—hear both sides of the story. You’ve only heard theirs. Now it’s time to hear mine.”
That’s Byju Raveendran, the once-revered edtech poster boy, now trying to reclaim narrative control after one of the most dramatic falls in Indian startup history.

Byju’s was the unicorn. Whether you liked it or not, it shaped the edtech conversation in India.
Teachers left classrooms to join it. VC money poured in faster than weekend discounts on WhiteHat Jr.
And then—poof.

Term loans. Tax raids. Massive layoffs. Courtrooms instead of classrooms.
The fall wasn’t just from grace, it was from orbit.

But in what he’s calling Byju’s 3.0, Raveendran is resurfacing with a new promise:
→ Return to the core mission (prioritizing education, not just expansion)
→ Use AI for personalized learning (finally, a buzzword with purpose?)
→ Pay off dues and make peace with ex-employees (if he doesn’t get bullied into it first)

He says, “We don’t belong in courtrooms. We belong in classrooms.”
Which is poetic. But is it practical? Let’s see.

Why This Comeback Is Worth Watching:

1. Redemption arcs are great, but only if they’re followed by hard reforms.
PR statements are cool. But can Byju’s re-earn trust? Not just from investors, but from students, parents, and teachers who once stood by it?

2. Every founder needs this reminder: Blitzscaling isn’t always blissful.
Byju’s went from product to poster child to problem child, largely because it scaled fast, loose, and loud.
If there’s one lesson here, it is: growth at all costs usually comes at a cost.

3. Maybe... just maybe... some comebacks are worth rooting for.
Because at its core, the mission of improving education at scale still matters. And if Raveendran can course-correct this entire scenario, he might just write a better second act than anyone expected.

So what now?
Is this Byju’s big comeback, or the final curtain?

Only time will tell.
But in a startup world that loves underdogs and clean slates... you can bet we’ll be watching—popcorn in hand.

More than Buzzwords