The Indian D2C boom created a generation of founders who are excellent at marketing and underprepared for branding. This is not a criticism. It's a product of the environment. Between 2019 and 2022, performance marketing worked. Instagram worked. The playbook was clear: good product, Instagram-native visuals, performance campaigns, influencer at launch. Thousands of brands used it to get from zero to ₹1–5Cr. The problem is what happened next. Customer acquisition costs rose o