2025 B2B is 100% perception, digital struggle with AI, trust is everything

Light rebrand + how speculation, expectations, and human psychology drive the planet around

???Note: “The Growth Blueprint” has been renamed to “Growth Shuttle Insider,” now living under the Growth Shuttle hat: https://insider.growthshuttle.com/

A favorite quote of mine by Nietzsche states:

“There are no facts, only interpretations.”

This applies to our personal lives, our careers, investments, and hiring decisions. And as a logical individual who studied computer science for years, I' had to learn that the power of branding, marketing, PR, advertising can overcome all and any facts out there.

B2B is driven by emotions

Before we cover the FOMO mechanics of B2B, I cross-posted a controversial social post about remote work the other day - one that got viral on Threads, apparently. The same one was posted in other networks, but needless to say, Threads is a Meta products where a ton of “diehard” Facebook and Instagram users hang out and spend an unhealthy amount of time, often during business hours.

Of course, remote workers - or those not granted remote rights - got straight to my feed, bashing, trolling, hating, venting. I even replied to several threads (feeding the trolls), responding to questions with facts, only to be called names back my way over and over.

In other words - the typical social behavior in anonymized networks (especially the Meta ones + X) showcased the “vocal minority” - or one of the many angles of socially accepted practices you see in public, shaping public opinions, regardless of actual P&Ls and company metrics.

???And everything else we’ve seen in B2B over the past years has been vastly driven by emotions and human psychology:

• The growth of 2016-2021 was surrounding the safe space narrative of the blooming digital ecosystem, the Klondike of our generation
• VCs have been raising capital left and right to keep fueling this endless engine of economic growth, prosperity, and civilizational progress
• The pandemic of 2020-2021 was an emotional rollercoaster driven by fear and uncertainty (and frankly, rightfully so). Many B2B businesses halted contracts or projects facing the fear of the unknown
• 2021 was also dubbed the “year of the great resignation” - as people found their vocations in non-digital roles, or hopping into the winners of the recession (fast-booming categories), or taking advantage of all remote opportunities and leaving offices with the speed of light
• 2022 started a layoff spree, following investor memos against Mark Zuckerberg on wasting capital on the Metaverse and hiring overpriced engineers. This made Zuck a hero by “optimizing for efficiency” doing cuts, especially after Elon took over X and already raised the tolerance ceiling by hiring 75% of the staff where the product is still alive and kicking. As a result, the other leading Nasdaq companies used that momentum to start laying off left and right - because previously, cuts were socially unacceptable, bad PR could have damaged said corporations, and any isolated case would have ruined a single company vs. all
• That whole efficiency narrative led to rapid interest rate bumps (because of overspending), leading to a next wave of fear - from additional budget cuts to companies switching from “growth” to “cost cuts”. While thousands of bloated startups running fast in the red were definitely “doing it wrong”, there are millions of companies with decent liquidity and run rate, staying the course and waiting for the bear market to turn bull again - all emotionally driven.

In hindsight, the ultra-rapid growth of the late 2010s was unnatural and bound to stop - what we usually call a "bubble.” Amazon alone grew from 750,000 people in 2019 to over 1.5 million two years later as shopping exploded during the lockdown years. How is that sustainable again?

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