Trust Your Gut: The Invisible Co-Founder in Every Start-up

Some of the boldest startup leaps start with a gut feeling. This week, we hear the stories of founders who trusted their instinct - when logic said otherwise...

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The Startup Leap
May 18, 2025

Welcome back to The Startup Leap Newsletter #19 - #RealTalk #RealLessons From Founders Who Took The Startup Leap 🚀

💡 This week, we’re diving into a founder reality check: should you trust your gut - or wait for more data?

In the world of startups - where pitch decks, data dashboards, and market trends reign supreme - there’s one powerful force that often gets downplayed: gut feeling.

At The Startup Leap, a recurring theme across founder stories is the pivotal role of intuition.

Yet, for many in tech and finance, gut feeling is seen as fluff - soft, subjective, and unreliable.

That skepticism is understandable.

After all, shouldn't decisions be rooted in hard numbers?

But here’s the twist: discounting gut feeling may actually be detrimental.

Not only do hard data and neuroscience validate intuition as a legitimate decision-making tool, but nearly every founder we've spoken to describes moments where instinct (not data) led them through uncertainty, pivots, and leaps of faith.

🎧 When Founders Followed Their Inner Compass

🧠 Sabrina (Kore Labs) recalls the moment she leaned fully into her intuition:

“There was a moment where I went, you know what, I just want to follow my gut feeling. And that was transformational for me… I knew how to do it. I just didn’t believe it.”

“There is a reason why you are the founder… You had the vision, the courage, the experience. There is something that you have to trust.”

📌 Richard (Robin AI) captured the solo-founder reality:

“Sometimes as a CEO, you have to go against what everyone else is telling you… Only you will know that it’s the right thing to do because you have the context of the market, your customers… You have to have the confidence to make that decision.”

💡 Ida Tin, founder of Clue, took the leap into health tech while broke and pregnant -with no technical background:

“I didn’t know what would lie ahead… But sometimes it’s a good thing you don’t. It’s an endless learning journey.”

🛣️ Timbo (OkHi) reframed the founder decision-making process:

“Passion is overrated. I led with my pocket… Experienced operators are more strategic. They ask: Do I really have a right to the market?”

🧠 Science Agrees: Intuition Is Data-Driven

Skeptics may write off intuition as irrational, but research paints a more nuanced picture:

  • The Somatic Marker Hypothesis by Antonio Damasio proposes that our brains create shortcuts from past emotional experiences - helping us sense the right move before we rationalize it.

  • Expertise-Based Intuition shows that intuition becomes sharper with experience.

    Founders steeped in their field are often making faster, better decisions - not despite using their gut, but because of it.

  • A 2024 study found that leaders using intuitive strategic judgment often outperformed those relying solely on analytical thinking - especially under pressure.

🔄 So, What Should You Do with Your Gut?

  • Don’t ignore it - interrogate it. Ask: Where is this feeling coming from? What experience or knowledge is fueling it?

  • Pair it with data. Use intuition to guide direction, then validate with facts.

  • Practice listening. The more you learn to hear your internal compass, the more refined it becomes.

In a startup, your gut isn’t just a hunch - it might be your most evolved decision-making tool.

As we’ve seen again and again on The Startup Leap, it’s often the gut that starts the journey, sustains it through crisis, and lights the way when logic goes quiet.

Thanks for reading 💜

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TSL Team 💜