Why the Best Founders Approach Business Like an Engineer

We are fortunate to be standing at the work of giants. Every time we cross a swing bridge or hear a wonderful piece of music, we feel a spark of someone else’s genius. We don’t need to understand every theory to take advantage of it—and the same is true of building a business.

You don’t need a computer science degree to think like an engineer—but doing so can help you build better, faster, and with fewer errors. My own career in tech leadership didn’t start with coding. It began with watching my mother translate between aerospace engineers and military generals—two highly structured, advanced worlds speaking different “languages” of complexity. His superpower was deconstructing systems so that anyone could understand them. This talent has guided me ever since.

At our firm, we train founders to adopt an engineering mindset: systems thinking, architectural clarity, constraint awareness and fast feedback loops. Here’s how it works and why every founder should be using it.

1. Eliminate complexity with systems thinking

Founders often feel pulled in all directions: the product doesn’t stick, funding is tight and teams are spread out. Everything seems like a top priority – and it’s paralyzing.

Engineers never see a problem as a big black box. They break it down into systems and subsystems, each with dependencies. When I led product at a large talent agency, friction threatened to derail the business. The “problem” wasn’t monolithic – it was four separate issues: poor data capture, broken matching logic, complex workflow automation and outdated CRM tooling. Treating each as its own module allows us to test, measure, and debug independently.

Don’t panic. Identify the subsystem that is the bottleneck, isolate it and deal with it first.

2. Prioritize architecture before action.

Many startups start building before thinking. Features shipped without a strategy, and the founders scaled a product that wasn’t designed to scale.

Engineers start with architecture. They follow blueprints and apply the 80/20 rule: focus 80% of effort on what can be standardized and reserve energy for the 20% that requires creativity.

Standardize can be standardized. Save your time, energy, and capital for something that really pays off.

3. Treat obstacles as creative catalysts.

Obstacles are not limitations – they are opportunities. Engineers know this: memory, bandwidth, and budget limit specification power.

Founders should ask: *What can we achieve with the resources we have?* Often, beautiful solutions only emerge when you embrace the limitations. Constraints remove what is unnecessary and what really adds value.

4. Use binary thinking to break analysis paralysis.

In a crisis, engineers rely on binary logic: yes/no, on/off. They isolate variables rather than overanalyze everything.

Founders can do the same. Should you target startups or enterprise clients? Test both quickly. Should you hire internally or outsource? Run a short trial. Each binary decision reduces uncertainty and accelerates clarity.

5. Build to validate, ready after launch.

Speed ​​without learning is wasted. Engineers tool everything: performance, behavior, edge cases. Founders should adopt the same strictness.

Treat every product decision as a hypothesis. Build small, scale obsessively, learn faster than competitors. Avoid the Perfection Trap – Progress beats polish in early-stage projects.

Think like an engineer, lead like a human.

Engineering frameworks are powerful, but they are only half the story. Most startup failures aren’t technical — they’re human: misalignment, miscommunication, unmet expectations. So we associate systems thinking with radical empathy.

Founders who combine engineering clarity with emotional intelligence can scale quickly **without sacrificing the team’s well-being**. You may never write a line of code—but thinking like a technologist can be your most valuable leadership asset.

Choose a system that feels great this week. Break it down like an engineer, tackle one subsystem at a time, and see clarity instead of chaos.

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We are fortunate to be standing at the work of giants. Every time we cross a swing bridge or hear a wonderful piece of music, we feel a spark of someone else’s genius. We don’t need to understand every theory to take advantage of it—and the same is true of building a business.

You don’t need a computer science degree to think like an engineer—but doing so can help you build better, faster, and with fewer errors. My own career in tech leadership didn’t start with coding. It began with watching my mother translate between aerospace engineers and military generals—two highly structured, advanced worlds speaking different “languages” of complexity. His superpower was deconstructing systems so that anyone could understand them. This talent has guided me ever since.