In this short multi‑speaker discussion, the hosts argue that entrepreneurs should move away from relying on gut instincts and instead base decisions on concrete customer data. They illustrate the power of data with the example of pop star Taylor Swift, who uses analytics to pinpoint fan locations and song popularity to plan tours and merchandise. Speaker C then provides a detailed, lay‑person explanation of how gut feelings arise neurologically—through sensory inputs, the hippocampus, reticular activating system, and prefrontal cortex—producing rapid emotional reactions that are useful for personal survival but ill‑suited for business decisions, which lack the necessary sensory inputs. The speakers conclude that while intuition may be the only tool at a startup’s inception, as soon as data becomes available entrepreneurs should challenge their instincts, let the data tell the story, and make informed, less reactionary choices.
Next one: understanding your customer data. Customer.
Customer. Understanding your customer data. You sound like you're from Worcester, Massachusetts. You gotta understand your customer.
Leverage data to make informed decisions. So Taylor Swift has used data analytics to understand where her fans are located and which songs resonate most, allowing her to plan successful tours and merchandise launches. So smart. I didn't even think of that. To get more specific about what you're offering where while you're traveling. Traveling with your stuff. Yeah. Using data to figure that stuff out.
Data's important. I think it's underutilized by most entrepreneurs. We say we trust our gut, our gut knows all. And the reality is it rarely does. Here's the danger. When you start your business, you don't have any data. So the only thing you got is your gut and your gut will guide you on self-preservation, self-awareness pretty darn well. The thing is our business is a separate entity. I don't know if I really understood how the gut works until recent years. There are inputs into our brain from sight, smell, touch, our senses. Mm-hmm. Those come together and then our brain calculates and the hippocampus and the reticular formation, which has the reticular activating system, which some people know about, and the prefrontal cortex, they all do their things and light up and it gives us this near instant feeling. And it usually comes across as emotion. It's the best communication, like avoid, run, love, appreciate. These quick emotions come up and that's what we call our gut. So you can be walking down a dark alley and you're like, ooh, oh, I got a shiver. Walk back outta that dark alley. That's all these inputs saying, Based upon my history and experience, bad thing, bad thing. It's like the caveman, bad thing. Bad thing. Go run, run, bad thing. The thing is our business, we don't have sight, we don't have touch, smell in our business, but we act that way. So we say the business is trying to grow in this category. Ooh, I got shivers. Bad, bad thing. And I run away, but we don't have the proper inputs. We have to look at the data that backs that. So intuition, when you're starting your business in the very beginning, is the only thing you can rely on. So you have to use it. But as you start collecting data, get real with that information. It will tell you a story that may be inconsistent with your intuition, and that's a beautiful thing. Challenge your intuition when it comes to your business insights. Don't go by your gut to run your business because that's a reactionary thing to biological emotion. Go by the data and see what the data says.
Okay.
And sometimes it'll be consistent. That's great. Other times it won't be.
