How to Make Decisions in a Startup Ecosystem

What I wish I would have known as a first time founder: Not all advice is worth listening to. We all get barraged by well-meaning recommendations. From investors, friends, and the internet. So how do you decide what advice to implement and what to disregard? This is a common question I get from many clients. Here is a simple set of questions you can use to filter it all and determine what’s applicable to you. 1. Does it align with your vision? Evaluate each piece of advice based on how well it aligns with your vision and whether it propels you toward your goals. If the advice significantly deviates from your core objectives or doesn't serve your long-term interests, it might be best to set it aside. 2. Is the source a credible expert? Be sure to consider if person has successfully navigated a similar challenge or whose business acumen you respect. Investors might have strategic insights while fellow founders may offer more practical advice. Prioritize advice from sources with a proven track record in relevant areas. 3. Is it applicable to you? Consider the practical aspects of implementing the advice. Is it feasible, given your current resources, team capabilities, and technological infrastructure? Sometimes, even excellent advice may not be practical due to your startup's stage, budget constraints, or industry regulations. 4. Can you find a way to test it? Leverage data to make informed decisions. If possible, test the advice on a small scale and measure the outcomes. A/B testing can be particularly useful to see what works best for your business without fully committing to one strategy over another. By systematically assessing each piece of advice against these criteria, you can more effectively filter the noise and decide on the best strategies for your business. The bottom line with advice is to always trust your instincts. As a founder, trusting your gut can be just as important as logical deliberation. If something doesn’t feel right, feel free to ignore it, regardless of the source of the advice. Your intuition is shaped by your experiences and knowledge, and it can be a powerful decision-making tool.

This is the death spot for startups: Not quite failing, not quite succeeding. Stewart Butterfield (Slack founder) said it's the "hardest moment in a startup's life.” You're telling a story that people want to believe in, but reality keeps punching you in the face. I've been there, too. You're working insane hours, for months on end — trying everything to move the needle. But nothing quite sticks. Or parts stick, but not enough of the whole. You're not failing hard enough to call it quits, but you're not succeeding enough to feel confident. It's a special kind of hell. How you handle a middling time like this can make or break your startup. You have three options: 1. Keep pushing forward 2. Pivot to a new strategy 3. Quit and cut your losses None of them are easy. More often than not, your gut will guide you to the right decision. Maybe that means doubling down. Maybe it means pivoting to a new strategy. Maybe it means living to fight another day. Whatever you choose, trust yourself. Start by asking: • Do I still believe in the mission? • What are our strengths and weaknesses? • What can we do differently? • Are we serving the customers we initially thought? • What do our customers really want? • Is our product genuinely valuable? • Are we sure we’re in the right market? Take the time to really sit with these questions. Talk with your team. Ask your advisors. Consult your mentors. But at the end of the day, the decision has to come from YOU. Because here's the hard truth: There is no right answer. There's only the answer that feels right for you and your startup. But you need to be opinionated and make a decision no matter what… Because a bad decision has a chance of killing your startup. But indecision will kill it, guaranteed.

As a business leader or #founder which is the most useful for making decisions, intuition or data? Qualitative ‘gut’ feel or quantitative ‘data-driven’ clarity? The Ammophila wasp deposits her eggs in paralyzed victims - beetles, spiders, caterpillars - to ensure the survival of her species. In selecting the right nerve to paralyze (on the body of the victim), even as there are varying shapes and sizes of host, the Ammophila wasp has to be perfectly precise to avoid killing the victim. This sting happens with incredible speed. Incredible speed. Instantaneous. No calculation. All intuition. Intuition from doing it over and over and over and over again. And that’s where the data comes from. Repetition. I’ve lived the last five years, and several years before that at my previous company, making dozens of critical decisions daily. The reps of intuition lead to a data set that feeds the intuition. What #product updates should we prioritize? Should I hire this designer? Should I work to reverse the loss of this customer account or let it go? What should I highlight in this pitch to this #vc? I use 'gut'/qualitative info for exploration and discovery. And use data/quantitative data to measure and test. The more decisions you make based on gut, the more feedback you get (in the form of outputs or outcomes). The more feedback you get, the more data feeds into your intuition for your next decision. The accumulation of #data through intuitive #decisionmaking to further feed intuition eventually leads to mastery. And isn’t mastery what we all aspire to? Lesson? Be more like the Ammophila wasp. How do you make decisions?