🧠 12 words to delete from your startup vocabulary

These startup buzzwords make you sound clueless, cringe, or just plain boring. So cut these 12 words from your pitch, your deck, and your conversations — your investors (and customers) will thank you.

Hey friends 👋

Brace yourselves — I’m feeling unusually incisive today.

Maybe I haven’t had enough coffee. Maybe I’ve had too much. It doesn’t matter; I’m torching the place anyway.

So join me on my quixotic quest to salvage the startup pitches that are little more than soggy buzzword salads. Here’s a list of 12 words you should stop using — and what you should say instead.

Let’s dive deep👇

1. Disruptive

This is the golden child of startup jargon — the crown jewel of every half-baked pitch.

The problem?

Calling yourself “disruptive” is like calling yourself “cool” — if you have to say it, you aren’t.

Uber didn’t tell investors they were “disrupting” taxis; they just made it impossible to get a cab without feeling like you were stuck in an episode of Seinfeld. Netflix didn’t put “DISRUPTIVE” in bold on their pitch deck; they just quietly ended Blockbuster’s entire existence.

What to say instead:

• Talk about the specific pain point you solve and why customers are abandoning their old solution like a New Year’s resolution in February.

• Show evidence: “We’ve pulled 30% of the market away from incumbents in 6 months.”

• If you must use a D-word, try differentiated. It’s less grandiose and won’t make investors roll their eyes so hard they sprain something.

TL;DR: Disruptive startups don’t need to say they’re disruptive — everyone else will say it for them. And if they don’t… you’re not.

2. Growth Hacking

Ah yes, growth hacking — the magical art of skipping all the hard work of building a great business model and just “hacking” your way to a billion-dollar valuation with that one neat trick THEY don’t want you to know about.

Who needs sustainable traction when you can just slap a QR code on a grocery store cork board and call it guerrilla marketing?

There are a few lucky cases of virality, but no shortcuts to sustainable growth. There are no magic wands in startups. You have to do the work.

What to say instead:

• If you’re doing real, scalable growth work, just call it what it is: customer acquisition, retention, or demand generation.

• If your “hack” isn’t repeatable or tied to long-term retention, it’s not a growth strategy — it’s a stunt.

• Instead of chasing hacks, obsess over solving a real problem, building something people want, and getting users to stick around. (Weird, right?)

TL;DR: If “hacking” your way to growth actually worked, there’d be a lot more unicorns and a lot fewer dead startups. Stop looking for cheat codes and start playing the game.

3. Conservative (in projections)

It’s a classic founder move — hand over a bullshit financial model and then try to reassure investors:

“Don’t worry, these are conservative projections.”

Oh, well in that case…

But startup models are a work of fiction, so saying your numbers are “conservative” is just a concise way of saying, “look, I totally could have made these numbers even more ridiculous, but I showed restraint.”

What to say instead:

• Just don’t say it. Instead: “Here’s our model, based on [actual assumptions you can defend].”

• Be clear about what’s known vs. unknown. Saying “These projections assume a 3% conversion rate, based on early customer data” is way better than pretending you know things you can’t.

• Show confidence and credibility: “Obviously, these numbers will change as we learn, but here’s how we’re thinking about it today.”

TL;DR: All projections are guesses. Calling them “conservative” doesn’t make them more believable — it just makes you sound naive.

4. Democratizing

This is the go-to buzzword for startups who really just mean “we’re cheaper.”

Unless you’re literally giving people access to something they were previously locked out of — like life-saving medicine, legal representation, or, y’know, voting —you’re not democratizing anything.

You’re just lowering the price and hoping that passes for innovation.

Underpricing your competition isn’t a revolution — it’s a race to the bottom, and it never ends well.

What to say instead:

• Just own it: “We offer a lower-cost alternative to [competitor] while maintaining [key benefit].”

• If you are genuinely expanding access, focus on who is now able to use your product that couldn’t before, and why.

• Don’t confuse “cheap” with “valuable.” If your only selling point is price, you don’t have an innovation — you just have a shorter runway.

TL;DR: You’re not leading a revolution — you’re just undercutting the competition. And if that’s your whole strategy, I hope you have a Plan B for when they price-match.

5. Scale (as a verb)

Every early-stage founder’s favorite flex: “we’re scaling this thing.”

Except you’re probably not. Scaling is what you do when you’ve built something that works and need to make it bigger. If you’re pre-PMF, you’re not scaling — you’re still figuring out what the hell you’re even building.

What to say instead:

• If you’re still figuring things out, say: “We’re focused on proving demand and retention before accelerating growth.”

• If you are growing, be specific: “We’ve doubled revenue in the past six months and are now expanding into new channels.”

• Investors don’t reward premature “scaling” talk — if anything, it’s a red flag. Show you understand traction before acceleration.

TL;DR: If you’re still searching for product-market fit, you’re not scaling. Stop talking about expansion when you haven’t even finished construction.

6. AI-Powered

This is the hottest, buzziest, most investor-pleasing phrase in years — just sprinkle this magic dust on your deck for a 10x valuation bump!

Or, at least, that’s what founders seem to think…

Unfortunately, “AI-powered” conveys nothing unless you can explain what AI actually does for your product.

And calling an API doesn’t count! If your entire “AI strategy” is plugging into GPT-4o and hoping for the best… you’re about as “AI-powered” as a 2016 chatbot.

What to say instead:

• If AI is truly core to your product, explain how it works and why it matters. E.g.: “We use proprietary ML models to improve fraud detection by 80%.”

• If AI is just one part of what you do, be honest: “We integrate AI to enhance [specific feature], but our core value is [actual value prop].”

• If AI isn’t a differentiator, don’t pretend it is. It won’t set you apart unless you’re actually doing something unique.

Honestly? It’s usually best not to mention AI at all.

TL;DR: Unless AI is your core advantage, calling yourself “AI-powered” is like calling yourself “electricity-powered.” It’s not a selling point — it’s just table stakes in 2024.

7. Ecosystem

This is one of my favs, because ecosystem is the go-to word for founders who want to sound like they’re playing 4D chess when they’re really just trying to land their second customer.

But let me be blunt:

Boromir advising the Fellowship of the Ring that they cannot simply build an ecosystem.

Apple has an ecosystem. AWS has an ecosystem. But you… have a product, maybe a few integrations, and a vague hope that other companies will care enough to build around you.

That’s not an ecosystem strategy — that’s wish-casting.

It’s become a magical incantation founders use to make “we have partners” sound like some grand, self-sustaining empire. But if your entire business relies on other companies playing along, you don’t have an ecosystem so much as you have a dependency problem.

What to say instead:

• If you have integrations, call them integrations. “We’ve built partnerships with X and Y to expand our reach.”

• If you have a real network effect, explain it. “As more users join, the data improves, making the product more valuable for everyone.”

• If your whole plan depends on other companies participating, maybe rethink that plan. Startups succeed by solving urgent problems, not by sitting around waiting for their “ecosystem” to magically materialize.

TL;DR: If you have to tell people you’re building an ecosystem, you don’t have one. Until you’re big enough for others to depend on you, focus on making one thing work.

8. Hustle

If I had to pick a pet peeve from this list, it might be hustle. It’s the sacred word of founders who think effort is a substitute for strategy — the favorite flex of any douchebag mistaking being busy for building something that actually works.

But grinding isn’t a strategy — it’s a coping mechanism for not knowing what moves the needle. And more often than not, hustle is just procrastivity: an elaborate way of keeping extraordinarily busy with 483 other things to avoid doing the one thing that actually matters: getting data from real customers.

What to say instead:

• If you’re actually moving the needle, say how: “We increased revenue 3x in six months” — results > effort every time.

• If you want investors to take you seriously, talk about traction, rather than your schedule. No one cares how hard you work if nothing’s working.

• Smart founders know that execution isn’t about working more — it’s about working on the right things. Hustle is only impressive when it leads to momentum.

TL;DR: If your “hustle” is just fancy procrastination, you’re not an unstoppable founder — you’re just really good at avoiding the work that actually matters.

Go talk to some customers or something.

9. First-Mover Advantage

Obviously, being early automatically means being victorious.

I mean, obviously.

Except it doesn’t. The first-mover advantage is mostly a fairy tale. Being usually means you get to make all the early mistakes, burn cash educating the market, and pave the way for a second-mover who does it better.

Facebook wasn’t first; Google wasn’t first; Apple wasn’t first. Being first only matters if you also execute better, iterate faster, and create lock-in. Otherwise, you’re just the underfunded warm-up act for the real players.

What to say instead:

• If you’re early to a market, talk about what actually makes you defensible. “We have proprietary data, unique distribution, or a network effect that compounds over time.”

• If competitors are coming, show why you’ll win anyway. Speed helps, but strategy, execution, and actual differentiation matter more.

• Investors aren’t impressed by first-mover claims — they care about category dominance, not who showed up first.

TL;DR: First-mover disadvantage is a thing too — just ask Friendster, MySpace, and every other startup that got leapfrogged into oblivion.

10. Agile (outside of software development)

Agile! — the magical word that makes it sound like you’re nimble, fast-moving, and strategically flexible. But it’s usually just founder-speak for “we’re making shit up as we go.”

Outside of software development, saying you’re “agile” is like saying you navigate by vibes — it’s just a lame justification for flailing wildly without accountability.

What to say instead:

• If you actually test and adapt, explain how. “We run fast experiments but validate decisions with real data.”

• If you’re still figuring things out, own it. “We’re in discovery mode, testing different models before locking in our direction.”

• If you have no plan and are just hoping for the best… well, good luck with that.

TL;DR: Being adaptable is great. Being allergic to strategy is not. If ‘agile’ just means ‘we’re winging it,’ don’t be shocked when investors ghost you.

11. Leverage (as a verb)

No word works as well as leverage in making basic actions sound strategic.

Founders don’t use AI — they leverage AI. They don’t work with partners — they leverage partnerships. They don’t even sell to customers — they leverage market demand.

It’s like pitch deck MSG: just sprinkle in “leverage” and, as if by magic, your pitch suddenly gets meatier.

The problem is that it has no inherent meaning. It’s a placeholder for when you want to sound impressive but don’t actually have anything impressive to say.

What to say instead:

• Instead of “We leverage AI to optimize workflows,” just say: “We use AI to automate 80% of manual tasks.” — wow, actual information!

• Instead of “We leverage partnerships to drive growth,” say: “We’re working with X and Y to reach 10,000 new customers.”

• If you can delete “leverage” from your sentence and nothing changes, please do so.

TL;DR: Leverage is the duct tape of startup jargon. Just say what you actually mean — and if you mean nothing, please say nothing.

12. Innovative

And let’s end with innovative — one of the laziest, most self-congratulatory words in the startup lexicon.

Calling your startup “innovative” is like calling yourself a “thought leader.” If you have to say it, you’re probably not.

And yet, founders can’t resist slapping this word on everything:

• Innovative AI-powered SaaS.

• Innovative new platform.

• Innovative customer engagement solution.

You know what would actually be innovative? A pitch that doesn’t use the word “innovative.”

Why? Because nobody believes you. Every mediocre product calls itself innovative. Just because you think it’s groundbreaking doesn’t mean the market does.

What to say instead:

• Show, don’t tell. Instead of “our product is innovative”, say: “We cut costs by 60% and reduced setup time from days to minutes.” — actual innovation!

• Be specific. What’s different? What’s better? What changes the game in a way that customers actually care about?

• If you’re tempted to use “innovative,” ask yourself why no one else is saying it about you. The real test of innovation is whether other people recognize it — not whether you shove it into a pitch.

TL;DR: If your product is truly innovative, you don’t have to say it. And if you feel you have to say it, you’re probably just slightly better than existing solutions. And that’s fine — just don’t embarrass yourself pretending otherwise.

So…yeah don’t be that founder.

No one has ever heard the phrase “disruptive AI-powered ecosystem” and thought, wow, that sounds like a company I want to back.

Investors don’t fund jargon. Customers don’t buy buzzwords.

So next time you catch yourself saying “we’re an AI-powered, game-changing, disruptive ecosystem play” — stop. Take a breath.

And then go back to bed.

Because the only success you’re likely to find is in your dreams.

See you next week,

—jdm