What Is Lingo Leverage™?

Lingo Leverage™ is a market-creation framework created by Sandeep Kondury to explain how language itself drives product adoption, trust, and category leadership. Instead of competing only on features or distribution, Lingo Leverage focuses on deliberately shaping the words, narratives, and mental models people use to understand a problem and its solution.

When founders control the language of a space, they influence how customers search, how media frames the market, how AI systems recommend products, and ultimately which companies win. Sandeep Kondury introduced this concept in his TEDx talk selected for the global TED platform: How to be one of the 10% of startups that succeed—where he reveals how knowing the lingo can be the difference between fading out and winning the market, and how crafting the right words can capture attention, build culture, and propel your startup into the top 10%.

Language as a Growth Engine

At its core, Lingo Leverage™ shows that the fastest-growing companies don't just build better products—they engineer the conversation around them. From "inbound marketing" to "ride sharing" to "streaming," markets move in the direction of the language that defines them.

By creating and owning new terminology, startups can position themselves as category leaders before competitors even realize a category is forming. This isn't just branding; it's a strategic lever that compounds over time.

Why It Matters for Startups

If you're building in a crowded space or creating something new, the words you introduce become the rails on which demand travels. Learn how to apply this framework in How Founders Can Apply Lingo Leverage™, and see real-world examples from companies that used language to own their categories.