The Underdog Advantage (Part 2)
Last time, I told you about my scrappy soccer team. We were the underdogs, a bunch of misfits who won everything. We did the impossible. We broke records. We achieved nonlinear results that didn’t make sense.
How?
Not because we had the best individual players.
But because we became the best team.
We moved as one.
We drilled and practiced until we mastered communication, verbal and non verbal. We learned to read each other’s cues and respond quickly and supportively. Turns out, that made us dangerous.
👉 If you missed it, read Part 1 here. It sets the stage for everything below.
There’s something I want to make even clearer than I did last week:
Startups are the underdogs.
It’s actually their edge.
Before I tell you why, let's talk about what I mean by "startup." How can we use that term to define where we are in the journey?
For the sake of this newsletter, think of a startup is a group of people chasing a vision with limited time, limited budget, and zero guaranteed outcomes. Startups don’t have the traditional resources or metrics that lead to “success.”
You don’t have:
A $500M budget.
A huge team.
Prestige, brand equity, or safety nets. You’re not a household name—yet!
Time to waste. On hesitation, “office politics,” or over optimizing systems. You only win when you MOVE.
A map of how someone else did it. Because most companies that I work with are creating their own category.
But to each of these points, here’s what you DO have:
Conviction that stretches every dollar into innovation
People who care so much, they wear three hats and still sprint toward the ball
Purpose that powers late nights and long odds
Speed that outpaces slow, stale or bloated competition
Courage to be the pioneer, go first, build in real time, in public, without a perfect plan
In other words, you don’t have bureaucracy. You have something better.
You have belief.
But belief alone won’t get you to the next level.
That early-stage magic—that scrappy, powerful, “we’ll figure it out,” belief culture—doesn’t scale itself.
You need an internal engine, that creates conviction, connection and builds trust (it turns the flywheel) with every action, every conversation.
You need a reliable communication framework to lean on when stuff gets hard, because it will—and you will still need to move as one.
You need a system that has a positive impact on the way people come together, an intentional way to shape culture, at speed and at scale.
Because, you'll win because of culture. But you'll lose when you assume it’ll grow on autopilot.
I’ve worked with tons of startups over the years and what I’ve seen is that culture is the difference between a great idea and a valuable business. Yes, products matter. People matter. Ideas matter.
But the single greatest thing that makes a company special—and ultimately successful—is culture. Not perks. Not ping-pong tables. Not a laminated list of values that no one lives.
Culture is how your people come together.
But too many leaders think that happens on its own, that culture will create itself, that you can put it on autopilot. You think you can take your hands off the wheel.
But the truth is that culture always gets built. The only question is whether you intentionally shape it or whether you let it shape you… and your outcomes.
And there’s something else…
In the new world of AI, your people become more important and so does your leadership. Those technical skills? They’re table stakes. You can’t win on knowledge alone. Everyone has access now. So…
The new differentiator?
How fast you make decisions
How clearly your team communicates
How deeply your people trust each other’s instincts—even when the play changes and you need to pivot mid-stride
📈 Your competitive edge is how your people come together.
That’s something you have over bigger companies. You still control that as you scale.
Remember, you are David, not Goliath.
You don’t need to play by their rules.
You don’t win by acting like companies with 10x the headcount and budget.
You win by becoming the team that trains communication like it’s the product.
The team that turns chaos into cohesion—and does it faster than anyone else.
Then, you get to jump timelines, do the impossible and create nonlinear results that make no sense to “normal” people and “traditional” companies.
Because you’ve trained for this.
You’ve trained to have that edge in how your people come together.
You've trained to have a winning culture—just like my little underdog soccer team.
So, here's your call to action...
If you can’t take great people and turn them into a great team, a team that moves as one—you’re not leading. You’re just collecting impressive résumés so you can pat yourself on the back and tell your board how great of a job you did hiring them.
Wake up. Your people and the success of your whole company need more from you. You need to learn the art and science of building culture. Because remember when you take your hands off the wheel? Even for a little while?
Two words: culture cliff.
That said, you didn't train your whole life to know how to build culture. I get it. You're an absolute master at your craft. And when masters of their craft want to elevate, what do they do? They get a mentor, a coach. They find someone who can help, because they know it's not about them.
Because the best leaders know what they don't know and do whatever is needed to rise.
You need a culture that’s lived, not laminated.
And as the leader, you need to go first...
Practice communication. Drill it like we did on the soccer field. Over and over. Learn each others cues. Learn how to respond supportively on the fly. Learn to move as one.
It doesn't have to be BRAVE®, although it’s literally what BRAVE® was built for.
Not for the Fortune 100. But for fast-growing, founder-led, emotionally invested teams. For the ones who can’t afford not to get this right.
If this made you pause, reply. I'd love to chat. You might be a perfect candidate for our new certification program, to beta test our Culture Cliff™ Diagnostic Tool or to host a team-wide workshop... or just to chat. I could nerd out about this stuff for hours!
You have a huge (underdog) advantage.
I hope you do whatever it takes to scale it. 🚀
And if you need a sounding board, or a kick in the butt ;) I've got you.
Bravely,
Elisabeth
And if you think you’re too early for this? I get that a lot. But I can assure you, you’re not. You’re right on time. Before culture slips, scale what’s working. Your people and your company's results are counting on you to move.
