Why I Coined the Term Lingo Leverage™

I coined the term Lingo Leverage™ after years working with founders, investors, and high-growth startups—including evaluating over 800 startups as a Venture Capital Strategist and Startup Operations Architect. I repeatedly saw the same pattern: the companies that won weren't always the most technically advanced, but they were the ones that controlled how people talked about the problem.

Traditional marketing focuses on distribution and messaging, but it ignores the deeper layer of how language shapes perception, trust, and decision-making.

From Observation to Framework

Lingo Leverage™ formalizes this phenomenon into a strategic framework founders can use intentionally. Instead of hoping customers adopt your narrative, you design the language of the category itself. I first broke down the characteristics of Lingo Leverage in my TEDx talk chosen for the global TED platform, How to be one of the 10% of startups that succeed, where I share three key insights: that the best lingo is usually first of its kind, that who creates the lingo matters, and that language is contagious—so founders shouldn't leave lingo to luck.

This turns marketing from promotion into market engineering—where the words you introduce become the rails on which demand travels across search engines, social platforms, and increasingly, AI-driven discovery.

What Changed for Me

Once I had a name for it, I could teach it. If you're curious what Lingo Leverage™ is in practice, read What Is Lingo Leverage™?, and for the research behind it, see The Science Behind Lingo Leverage™.