Being brave in the startup context.

Being brave in the startup context is spectrumized.

Let's use branding and design as the reference point for thinking and decisions a startup could go through.

As of today (AU: 03/12/25 US: 12/03/25), there is an emerging trend of serif fonts, <h1 />'s containing key words in italics (of the serif), and visuals moving away from the typical SaaS to echoes of the Enterprise feel of the past.

More and more startups are inserting themselves at the trend, at the puck.

Announcements with some nice landscape photo with a raise announcement in serif.

No denying it looks good; clean, professional, executor-esque.

But it's the middle point of the bell-curve. There is nothing brave in inserting yourself at the trend.

Think - there was someone who was the first to pull of serif at the right time and was the catalyst.

How do you do something that is good, truthy, and ahead of the trend/puck?

It takes being brave.

To be a post-trend at-puck person or startup takes a bigger gamble. The dice you're rolling is still six sided, but instead of all the sides pointing to 3 (when inserting at-trend), you're looking at 1s and 2s with one side of a 6.

Are these trends forcing functions of the first instances inevitable nature? Was the future made by the first?