At a recent investor event, someone on the panel - suited, serious - announced that brand owners "just need to hustle harder." The room nodded. Then came the kicker: "But LinkedIn is a bit of a ghetto, so I don’t check my DMs."

It landed like a joke, but it wasn’t funny. Because it laid bare the quiet hypocrisy behind hustle culture. The people who champion it most loudly are often the least reliant on it. And those who live by it are expected to conjure miracles with no resources, no access and no margin for error.

So let’s talk about the grind - and why we need to move past it.

The Structural Reality: Broken Ladders, Vanishing Rungs

For years, hustle has been sold as the antidote to inequality. The logic goes like this: if you work hard enough, if you're scrappy enough, if you want it more than the next person, you’ll break through. But the numbers say otherwise.

In the UK, early-stage investment has been in decline. SEIS investment dropped by 26% between 2021 and 2024, according to HMRC, and EIS activity has plateaued. While the headlines praise founder resilience, capital remains concentrated in the hands of the same few.

According to the British Business Bank, just 0.24% of UK VC funding from 2009 to 2019 went to Black founders. A 2022 report found that only 19% of ethnic minority-led businesses had their loan applications fully approved, compared to 58% of white-led businesses.

Hard work doesn’t flatten those odds. It just obscures them.

As sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom puts it:
"The efficiencies of hustle culture — frictionless work, endless availability — have very different value depending on the social location of the worker."

So while some founders are told to "just reach out", others are stuck in inboxes no one opens, because the gatekeepers don’t like the neighbourhood.

Humans as Apex Predators — But Only When We Collaborate

Hustle culture worships the lone operator: the founder who sleeps four hours a night, learns every skill, builds a business from sheer willpower. It’s a compelling image — and a deeply flawed one.

Biologically, humans became apex predators not through strength or speed, but through collaboration. We hunt in groups, share skills, build tools and transmit knowledge.

So why does entrepreneurship still idolise the solo slog, especially in sectors like drinks, where success is built on shared infrastructure, joint ventures and collective know-how?

Collaboration Over Capital Burn: A Smarter Play in the Drinks World

As capital dries up and margins tighten, more drinks founders are shifting away from costly, high-growth models and embracing collaborative, sustainable strategies. One example: the rise of fractional sales agencies.

These are experienced commercial teams that work across multiple brands, offering access to seasoned sales leadership and market strategy without the heavy overhead of building a full-time in-house team.

At Lateish Drinks, we’re not just talking about it - we are one. As a fractional sales agency working with early-stage drinks brands, we’ve seen first-hand how powerful collaboration can be. It’s not just a workaround for lack of capital. It’s a strategic decision that lets founders scale sustainably, access industry networks, and focus on building profitable, long-term businesses.

In our own work, we’re seeking to help brands avoid the burn rate spiral and instead prioritise smart routes to market. Because sharing resources doesn’t dilute your edge - it sharpens it.

The Real Flex? Collective Resilience

The greatest harm of hustle culture is how it individualises failure. If your startup struggles, it’s your fault. You didn’t grind hard enough. You weren’t “all in.”

But when access is unequal, effort has a ceiling.

As Lucy Jane Widdop writes:
"When we equate difficulty with value, people begin to feel that they must constantly push beyond their limits to prove their worth - even when that effort is unnecessary or harmful."

We need to stop mistaking exhaustion for excellence. And we need to stop expecting underrepresented founders to bootstrap their way through systemic bias.

That’s why so many next-gen founders are building collective resilience - through shared platforms, co-manufacturing, fractional teams and peer-to-peer networks. These aren't soft alternatives to “real business”. They’re future-proof operating models.

Final Pour: Redefining the Narrative

The future of drinks doesn’t belong to the last founder standing. It belongs to the founders who understand that collaboration is a strategy, not a crutch.

So the next time someone tells you to hustle harder, ask them what networks they inherited. Ask them what rooms they’re already welcome in. Ask them whether they really believe in merit — or just like the sound of the myth.

Because if humans are truly apex predators, it’s not because we did it alone.

It’s because we did it together.