#34. The $7 Billion Format You’ve Probably Never Heard Of 💰
This one’s for the restless builders, the serial pivoters, and the perpetually “early-stage.”
Hello, sharp minds!
Welcome to the 34th edition of More Than Buzzwords — your weekly download of scroll-stopping insights, soul-filled startup stories, and the brutally honest truths no one dares to drop in a pitch meeting.
This week’s theme? Stick with it.
Because in a world obsessed with what’s next, the real wins come from going deep.
While others are switching niches, rewriting roadmaps, and launching their fifth MVP in seven months, the ones really winning? They’re building for someone, not everyone. They’re staying in one lane long enough to build mastery, trust, and momentum.
This week’s edition is your reminder that focus is a moat, stillness is a skill, and compounding isn't just for capital — it's for craft.
Here’s what I’ve got for you:
🔹 Tweet-sized wisdom – Four tough-love truths about focus, leverage, saturation myths, and the real reason your genius isn’t paying off yet.
🔹 Startup Spotlight – Meet Cradlewise: the AI-powered smart crib giving new parents the gift of sleep (and restoring some much-needed sanity).
🔹 The Big Idea – AI is no longer a backend tool, it’s becoming the face of consumer tech. From micro-drama formats to AI therapists, this podcast episode unpacks what’s already working, what’s broken, and where the next billion-dollar ideas are quietly taking shape.
Whether you’re building a product, a personal brand, or just trying to build better habits, this edition is your nudge to stop chasing shiny new things and start sharpening what’s already in your hands.
Let’s dive in. 👇
Tweet-sized wisdom
Here’s this week’s top four tweets for anyone ready to take their career to the next level.
1. Build Narrow, Win Big
Don’t build for everyone. Build for someone. So well they tell everyone.
This one hits at the heart of startup clarity. One of the biggest traps early-stage founders fall into? Casting the net too wide. But when you build obsessively for a specific user — their pain, their language, their exact moment of struggle — something magical happens: they become your loudest advocates.
Pleasing everyone is often the fastest way to please no one. It’s the classic “spray and pray” model of product building, and it kills early momentum. The most beloved products didn’t start by going wide. They went deep.
Think about how Duolingo made language learning fun for casual users first, not for everyone trying to master grammar. “Build for someone” isn’t about exclusion; it’s about precision. Ironically, focus is often the fastest route to scale.
When you build intentionally for a well-defined someone, you become indispensable. And when people feel truly understood, they talk. Word-of-mouth is still undefeated, but only when the experience is specific, delightful, and personal enough to be worth sharing.
2. Talent is Not Enough Anymore
3 skills that will make you future-proof:
The ability to:
• Create something of value
• Learn how to ask for money
• Learn how to get it in front of people
Stacked with the leverage of distribution and AI
And you're untouchable
This tweet reads like a checklist, but it’s actually a modern career philosophy. It’s no longer enough to just be good at your craft. You need to know how to package value, price it confidently, and get it in front of people who care. Whether you're a solo builder, a creator, or a founder, this trio of create, monetize, distribute is what truly sets you apart.
Add leverage to that with an email list, a social following, or a product with built-in virality and you’re no longer just talented. You’re operating at scale.
The future belongs to those who can both build and broadcast.
And the game-changer? AI. Tools that used to be out of reach are now at your fingertips. You can ship faster, tell your story better, and test ideas with zero-code solutions.
I know a designer who’s brilliant at what he does. His work is stunning. But his income doesn’t reflect his talent. It’s not because people don’t like his work, but because he struggles to position it, price it, and confidently ask for payment. He’s playing half the game. And in today’s world, half the game won’t cut it.
3. The Myth of Saturation
There's no such thing as a saturated market. Just a saturated mind…
• Solve an actual problem
• With your unique experiences
• Learn to write persuasive copy
• Finally, maximize the distribution and you'll find the market feeling less crowded.
This tweet busts the myth: markets don’t saturate, minds do. If you find yourself thinking “this space is too crowded,” look closer. Are the existing players solving the problem well? Are they solving your version of the problem?
“Saturated” is often just code for “I haven’t found my angle yet.” People said food delivery was done. Then Zomato built a moat around hyperlocal discovery and storytelling. People said beauty was too crowded, but Sugar Cosmetics found its edge by speaking directly to bold, urban Indian women who felt overlooked by legacy brands.
Markets only look crowded when you’re copying what is already loud.
Real opportunity lies in the unmet, the underserved, and the unspoken. You don’t have to invent something new. You just have to see the familiar with fresh eyes and serve it better.
The mind may be saturated. The market? Still hungry.
4. You Don’t Need a New Idea. You Need to Stick.
If you want to make more money, stop trying new things. It's impossible to become world class at anything when you start something new every three months.
This one stings because it’s true. The obsession with “what’s next” is quietly killing our shot at mastery. Whether you're switching niches every quarter or chasing the next side project, the real money and long-term impact usually come from doubling down.
Because mastery needs stillness. And stillness is rare when you’re hooked on novelty.
Staying put. Refining. Iterating. Doing the less glamorous work of compounding skills, trust, and insight.
The best builders aren’t constantly starting over. They’re deepening their moat. Consistency might not go viral, but it builds something far more powerful: momentum.
A friend of mine has been running the same boring-looking B2B SaaS tool for seven years. No pivots. No hype. Just constant improvement and customer obsession. Today, it brings in over $1M in annual recurring revenue, and he spends more time hiking than working.
Meanwhile, I’ve seen folks launch 5 different products in two years, still scrambling for stability. The difference? One chose focus. The other chose frenzy.
The bottom line is: If your energy is constantly split, your impact will be too. Stick with one lane long enough to build depth. Because world-class outcomes are not built in sprints. They’re built in seasons.
These were my top four tweets from this week’s scroll. Which one did you find the most insightful? Drop it in the comments below!
Now, let’s turn the spotlight on a startup that’s helping new parents catch some much-needed sleep (yes, you read that right).
Meet Cradlewise — a smart bassinet that grows into a crib and might just be the best parenting hack you haven’t heard of yet. What they’re building is genuinely fascinating. Let’s dive in.
Startup Spotlight: Cradlewise 👶
The smart crib that bounces, so you don’t have to
You know how parenting is often described as beautiful chaos? Cradlewise is trying to ease just one part of that chaos — the sleepless nights — with some seriously clever tech.
Founded by Radhika and Bharath in 2019, Cradlewise was born out of the kind of desperation every new parent has felt at 3 AM which is rocking a baby back to sleep while running on fumes.
Instead of just riding out those zombie months, they engineered a fix. What started as a DIY solution for their baby evolved into a full-blown smart crib that’s now delivering millions of hours of restful sleep to families across the US and Canada, and is now making its way home to India.
At its heart, Cradlewise is a smart, convertible bassinet-to-crib system that mimics the way a parent soothes a child, think gentle bouncing, white noise, sleep tracking, and soon, breath monitoring, all rolled into one sleek unit. But what really sets it apart is the AI: it learns your baby’s sleep cues and movements, detects early signs of waking, and responds even before the crying begins.
Basically, it’s like having an extra set of (very intuitive) hands – the hands that don’t get tired.
But Cradlewise isn’t just a gadget. It’s a philosophy:
“We want to help parents sleep better so they can be better — more present, more joyful, and less drained.”
The idea isn’t to replace parenting. It’s to give families more energy for the good parts such as cuddles, first words, and belly laughs.
Cradlewise calls itself a company that’s "by parents, for parents" and that really comes through in their thoughtful details: integration with Spotify to play your baby’s favorite lullaby, support for twin cribs in one app (because let’s be real, twin parenting is next-level), and even the ability to add grandparents to your “caregiver team.”
And while many baby tech companies stop at basic monitoring, Cradlewise is going further. Soon, their AI will also track respirations per minute (RPM) - a smart, contactless way to monitor your baby’s wellbeing without invasive wearables or sleep-disrupting interventions.
What started in a living room in India is now a globally loved brand, and it’s a full-circle moment to see Cradlewise bringing its tech back to India. In a world full of shiny gadgets for babies, this one actually solves a real, sleep-deprived problem.
And in doing so, it’s not just giving babies better rest. It’s giving entire families a chance to breathe.
What do you think of this startup?
There’s so much yet to be done in the babycare space in India, especially when it comes to supporting not just babies, but parents too.
I’ve recently stepped into this space myself, with a focus on nurturing both newborns and the people raising them. If you're curious about what we're building, you can get a glimpse on our Instagram page.
And if you'd like a peek into our behind-the-scenes – from idea to insight, from parent interviews to early workshops – I’ve been talking a lot about our journey on my LinkedIn with stories, reflections, and thought-starters from the field. Do check them out!
If you know me personally, you’d know I absolutely love tuning into podcasts for my daily dose of insights and ideas (in fact, that’s where many of the themes for this newsletter originate). Whether I’m between calls, on a long commute, or just have time to kill over the weekend, I plug in my earbuds and get lost in conversations between two strangers.
But this week, I stumbled upon a podcast that made me sit up, nod along, and pause to take notes — lots of them.
And, that’s what I’m going to share in this newsletter today. Keep reading to find out what stood out the most!
Pick of the week — The AI Revolution Will Be Consumer-First 🎧
This week, I tuned into a podcast episode that felt less like a tech talk and more like a roadmap for where the future is headed — fast.
In The Asymmetric Podcast, Rahul Chowdhri (Managing Director, Stellaris Ventures) joins hosts Revant (Mosaic Wellness) and Chirag (GoKwik) to unpack the future of AI, content, and consumer tech in India. If you're building in or thinking about AI, this episode is an eye-opener, equal parts insightful and sobering.
From Models to Real-Life Use Cases
One of the most refreshing takeaways? We’ve moved past the obsession with building foundational AI models. Instead, the real action now lies in the application layer which is the part users actually touch.
And that’s where India might just have an edge.
While we may have lagged behind in model building, India’s strength lies in understanding local needs, distribution nuances, and affordability-first innovation. Combine that with UPI autopay infrastructure, rising consumer willingness to pay for digital content, and dropping AI costs — and you’ve got a potent mix for scalable, impactful consumer apps.
AI Astrology, Gaming, and Even Dating? We’re seeing it all.
Rahul classifies the AI-powered consumer tech universe into three buckets:
Conversational Experiences — think AI astrologers, virtual therapists, dating apps, shopping concierges, and senior citizen companions. These services don’t just work. They thrive because people are more comfortable talking to AI about sensitive or complex issues. Privacy is a feature, not a bug.
Content Creation & Consumption — from audio fiction on Pocket FM to AI-powered educational modules, content is being generated faster, cheaper, and in multiple languages. With costs down by nearly 90% for audio and comics, the AI flywheel is just getting started.
Interactive Applications — gaming, social networks, and virtual communities where your interactions aren’t with people — but with intelligent NPCs and AI companions.
What’s Actually Working?
Some of the stats Rahul shares are wild:
Pocket FM is clocking over 200 million in revenue
AI sales reps are converting better than humans at 2 AM
Micro-drama formats (1–2 min episodes) are building massive global businesses — $7B in China, $2B in the US
UPI autopay has enabled subscription-first models at scale in India, with platforms like Kuku FM hitting 100 million in revenue
This isn’t theoretical. The consumer is already there, and AI is quietly powering the backend.
What Still Needs Solving?
Despite the excitement, I think a few things remain unsolved:
Long-form video creation with AI is still tricky
Predicting what content will “hit” still needs human taste and judgment
Fraud risks (fake KYC videos, deepfakes) are rising, and protection systems need to keep up
So, the AI moment isn’t coming. It’s already here.
And founders who can understand local context, solve real pain points, and ride the AI cost curve will define the next generation of consumer brands, especially in India.
If you're building anything at the intersection of AI and consumer tech, this one's not just worth a listen, it's practically a blueprint. And, if you’re not listening to this with a notebook open, you’re doing it wrong.
🎧 Listen: The Future of AI, Content, and Consumer Tech in 2025 — Asymmetric Podcast
And that’s a wrap on the 34th edition of More Than Buzzwords!
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Got feedback or questions? Drop me a line at saurabh.substack.2407@gmail.com — I’d love to hear from you!