All startups seek to disrupt and disintermediate a smug status quo, or originate and dominate an entirely new niche. But what makes a brand a bland is duality: claiming simultaneously to be unique in product, groundbreaking in purpose, and singular in delivery, while slavishly obeying an identikit formula of business model, look and feel, and tone... See more

“The VC community is an increasingly predictable and lookalike bunch that just seems to follow each other around from one trivial idea to another.”

To be fair, some blands do pioneer genuine social change: Imperfect Foods tackles food waste by selling ugly, off-spec and undervalued produce; Binti has helped over 12,000 families to foster or adopt; Ava allows 400 million deaf and hard-of-hearing people to have accessible in-person conversations; and DNANudge has recently adapted the technology... See more