India builds faster. Sweden builds better. And according to a Delhi-based startup founder, that’s no accident, it’s the result of a mindset India’s hustle culture refuses to adopt: doing just enough.
“Bangalore has more engineers than Sweden has people,” writes Vipul Agrawal in a LinkedIn post. “We work 14-hour days, ship fast, break things, raise faster.”
Still, Sweden — a nation smaller than one Indian city — has built global, category-defining brands: IKEA, Spotify, H&M, and Volvo. The difference, Agrawal says, isn’t capital, talent, or tools — it’s lagom, a Swedish philosophy that means: not too much, not too little, just enough.
“They don’t hustle,” he writes. “And that’s exactly what makes it timeless.”
He points to how Swedish brands embody restraint:
- IKEA doesn’t chase luxury — it delivers just enough design at just enough price.
- Spotify avoids exclusivity wars — it offers just enough music, social, and curation.
- Volvo doesn’t scream status — it delivers just enough comfort and safety.
In contrast, Agrawal says Indian startups are drowning in frameworks, funnels, and funding decks — chasing growth at all costs while ignoring core value. “We forget that sometimes what you need is fewer frameworks and more first principles.”
His takeaway: global founders mimic what Swedish companies build, but not how they think. “The world tries to copy IKEA’s minimalism, Spotify’s UX, H&M’s pricing… but forgets to copy the philosophy behind them.”
