WIN, Survive or Die
The Startup Journey in Real Life.
This is not a lecture. This is not theory. What follows comes from the scars, lessons, and observations of real startups ,what they did, what worked, what failed, and why some are no longer here today.
The truth is simple: most startups die, a few barely survive, and only a handful truly win.
1. Setting Up Is Hard. Running Is Brutal.
Starting a company is already tough, you need vision, legal setup, product ideas, and a hundred moving parts. But let me be clear: running a company successfully is exponentially harder.
Now add one more word: FinTech. When you play in the financial space, you’re not just building an app, you’re building a system people entrust with their money, their savings, their future. That’s a weight you can’t ignore.
2. Trust Is the Currency
Every FinTech company lives or dies by trust. Forget valuation, forget user growth, forget the press release hype, if people don’t trust you, they won’t use you.
- People don’t deposit money into a platform they don’t believe in.
- Merchants don’t partner with a company they don’t feel is stable.
- Regulators don’t tolerate a FinTech that cuts corners.
Trust is not optional, it’s oxygen. Without it, the company suffocates.
3. Trust Is Earned by “Working” Software
So how do we earn trust? Not with words. Not with marketing. Not even with promises.We earn it with working software.
Working software means:
- High performance – the system responds fast, always available.
- Correct data – no errors, no missing money, no “oops.”
- Zero bugs that matter – no crashes, no endless support tickets.
In FinTech, there’s no “good enough.” The bar is absolute, and “almost right” is the same as wrong.
4. The Leaves and the Fruit
But here’s the part many founders miss: working software is the visible result, not the source.
Think of it like a tree:
- The fruit is the sweet customer experience.
- The leaves are the features, the design, the nice UI.
- But the roots, invisible to most, determine everything.
The leaves may impress people. The fruit may look sweet. But it is the roots that decide whether we Die, Survive, or WIN.
This is where most startups get it wrong. They try to “ship faster” or “sell more” without tending to the roots.
5. The Invisible Things That Matter Most
So, what are the roots? What are these invisible forces?
- Company culture – Do we value shortcuts, or do we value craftsmanship? Do we hide problems, or do we surface them early?
- The way we work – Do we respect clear roles and responsibilities, or do we live in chaos? Do we use systems like Jira to ensure compliance and traceability, or do we run on sticky notes and hope?
- The way we live together – A startup isn’t just code and capital. It’s people. It’s how we treat each other when deadlines burn, when stress rises, when failures sting.
In a software startup, especially in FinTech, the way we build is everything.
Not the tech stack. Not the coding language. But the discipline of how we manage development: requirements, accountability, governance, quality.
6. Die, Survive, or WIN
Every startup faces these three paths:
- Die – They ignore trust, rush software, fake growth, and collapse when customers or regulators walk away.
- Survive – They do just enough to stay afloat, constantly fighting fires, always one crisis away from failure.
- WIN – They understand the invisible roots, nurture culture, enforce discipline, and ship real, working products that earn trust day after day.
Winning doesn’t mean luck. It means design. It means focus. It means never forgetting that trust is built in the roots before it blooms in the fruit.
Final Note
So, if you’re leading or working in a startup, ask yourself:
- Are we building leaves or roots?
- Are we chasing the quick win, or planting for the long game?
- Are we choosing the path to Die, Survive, or WIN?
The choice is yours. The journey is brutal. But for those who choose to build on trust, discipline, and culture—the fruit can be sweeter than anything else in business.