Trusting Your Gut
Why Startup Founders Shouldn’t Ignore Intuition in People Decisions
Every founder knows the math: revenue models, market sizing, CAC vs LTV. But when it comes to the people who shape your startup’s future—cofounders, early hires, investors—logic alone won’t protect you.
That uneasy feeling about someone on your team or cap table? Ignore it, and it could cost you your startup.
Intuition: An Underrated Founder Skill
Research shows intuition is the brain’s way of compressing experience into a fast signal. It’s why founders often sense when something feels “off” long before data confirms it. Steve Jobs called it connecting dots. Masayoshi Son famously invested $20 million in Alibaba after a five-minute meeting—guided mostly by instinct.
In startups, data is scarce and ambiguous. Decisions about people—unlike product features or pricing tests—rarely come with clean metrics. Here, your gut is often the best early warning system you have.
Why People Decisions Matter Most
In the Discovery and Validation stages of the startup life cycle, you will pivot product, market, and business model multiple times. But the people around you—the cofounder you lean on, the investor who challenges or supports you, the early hire who sets cultural DNA—remain constant through every pivot.
That’s why people choices shape long-term success more than any early product roadmap.
At Soluntech, we’ve seen this first-hand with founders we partner with. Teams that align on trust and mutual respect navigate pivots with resilience. Teams that ignore gut warnings often face breakdowns that no amount of capital can fix.
Practical Advice for Founders
✓ Listen to discomfort — If a partnership or hire feels wrong, investigate instead of rationalizing it away.
✓ Choose admiration over convenience — Pick cofounders you genuinely respect, not just those who fill skill gaps.
✓ Validate with both instinct and inquiry — Let your gut guide you, but ask the hard questions to confirm.
Balancing Instinct with Evidence
Intuition doesn’t replace validation—it complements it. Just as we test MVPs before scaling, founders should test their instincts with deeper conversations, trial projects, and value alignment exercises.
The Startup Owner’s Manual calls startups “temporary organizations searching for a repeatable, scalable business model.” But no business model survives without the right people to execute, adapt, and grow it.
Final Thought
Your business model will change. Your product will evolve. But the people you bring in during the early stages will shape every pivot, every iteration, and every success.
Trust your gut. It may be your most valuable due diligence tool.
Ready to build with a partner who helps you validate fast and avoid costly missteps? Book a meeting with Soluntech and let’s design your path to a scalable business.