How brand building is starting to look like venture investing

My mornings start with envy.

Every morning, the first thing I do is check the #vibe-marketing channel on Slack. It's become a ritual, though not always a pleasant one. By the time I wake up in Bangalore, the marketers in New York and London have already shipped new and exciting stuff – new tools, entire agents, or Gumroad products that solve problems I didn't know I had. The creative output is relentless, and honestly, a little demoralising.

But here's what's strange: I've stopped Googling for tools entirely.

Last month, I needed a lightweight way to track link performance without drowning in Google Analytics. Someone in the channel mentioned Link Tracker Pro – “a lightweight analytics tool built for creators and marketers who just want clarity, not spreadsheets”. There were no ads or affiliate links. Just a genuine recommendation from a stranger who was part of the same gatekept community. I bought it within an hour.

This is how I buy now. Not through search engines or Instagram ads, but through peer-vetted recommendations in private channels. I'm in Skool communities for writers and in Discord servers for Dan Koe's Kortex and MidJourney users. These are micro-economies with their own currencies like trust, shared taste, and proof of work.

And I’m not alone.

Edelman’s 2024 Trust Barometer confirms what most of us have been sensing for some time – trust in institutions has fallen. People now rely on peers and community operators more than on polished experts. In fact, a whopping 84% of Gen Z trust peer recommendations over brand ads.

Discovery, too, is decentralising. Gen Z begins searches not with Google but with LLMs, YouTube comments, Reddit, and Discord. Brand persuasion now happens inside peer-moderated spaces long before ads are even seen.

The machinery of mass marketing still delivers reach, but it no longer delivers belief as it used to.

I know this because I've been on both sides.

I've run multi-million dollar campaigns at P&G and Swiggy. Some worked. Many didn't. The ones that succeeded bought attention at scale. But attention without conviction is just expensive noise. You can force a click. You can't force someone to care.

The brands winning today aren't the ones shouting louder. They're the ones embedding themselves into the small rooms where people already gather – and earning the right to stay.

The new world requires a different operating model. Not one blockbuster bet, but a portfolio of small, honest experiments.

An operating model for this new world – a portfolio-of-bets lattice

The framework is simple. Design a lattice of small, authentic experiments across multiple tribes connected by a shared interest. Then manage it like an investor:

Define the common tissue. Find the value that ethically binds your clusters (e.g., better sleep, vernacular fashion, productivity, or political values).

Place many small bets. Launch lightweight pilots among these communities: a WhatsApp drop, a co-creation run, or a vibe coding meetup. Cap the time and budget for these bets.

Measure for depth. Track depth metrics that focus on engagement: event turnout, repeat behaviour, contribution rate, and invite velocity.

Double down where rituals emerge. Rituals like weekly challenges or invite-only sessions signal belonging and predict lifetime value.

Spread the risk. Avoid dependence on one tribe or platform. Spread exposure across at least five clusters and exit quickly where the signal is weak.

This is already happening in India. JioMart completes transactions entirely inside WhatsApp groups. The Souled Store built a fandom-first model around licensed IP drops, treating subcultures as business units. Notion seeds 200+ volunteer community leaders globally to host local meetups, riding on low-cost distribution with high-trust faces.

Small, voluntary economies are proving sturdier than big broadcast empires.

But this model isn't easy. And it’s all too easy to fail.

Where the mini-cult strategy can falter

Every belief system needs upkeep. Mini-cult strategies are demanding precisely because they rely on continual participation.

When the stream of bets dries up, engagement cools. Communities have sharp instincts, and the moment intimacy becomes transactional, they sense it. Also, overmanaging kills the magic. The brands that try to control every interaction suffocate the very participation they depend on.

Still, the shift is irreversible. Brand building now resembles venture investing. You can't predict a single winner. You increase your chances of success by placing multiple honest bets and allowing communities to show where belief is strongest.

Every morning, I'll keep open Slack before my eyes fully adjust. Not because I enjoy the humble reminder of what people much cleverer than me are building. But because that's where the signal lives now – in the rooms where people actually trust each other.

The question isn't whether mass marketing still works. Of course, it does. What marketers need to ask themselves is whether we’re willing to show up in the small rooms where it doesn't matter how much we spend, only whether we belong.

(Sandeep Nair, Co-founder of David & Who, simplifies brand marketing for B2C startups under $10M ARR. With 10+ years’ experience at P&G and Swiggy, he excels in brand strategy and consumer connection.)