Most successful SaaS companies start with a strong intuition. Founders understand the problem deeply. Early decisions are quick, informal and often correct. The closeness between insight and action creates a dynamic that is difficult to reproduce later.
As companies grow, it becomes increasingly difficult to rely on this intuition. Teams are getting bigger, customers are diversifying and systems are becoming more complex. Decisions that once seemed obvious now seem risky.
Many companies are responding by relying more heavily on the same instincts that drove early success. Rupon Anandanadarajah has seen where this is leading.
The limits of intuition at scale
As companies grow, intuition does not disappear, but its reliability changes. Signals get louder. Results have several causes. The individual experience captures less of the overall picture.
When intuition continues to dominate decision-making in larger organizations, problems arise. Decision-making bottlenecks among high-ranking managers. Teams find it difficult to explain why certain decisions were made. Disagreements become personal because the argument is implicit rather than shared.
Rupon helps companies recognize this transition point. Not as a failure, but as a natural phase of growth.
Moving from instinct to intention
The shift in Rupon leadership is subtle but powerful. From instinct-driven decisions to intention-driven decisions.
Intent requires explicit justification. Teams are asked to articulate what they believe in, why they believe it, and what would change their opinion. This does not eliminate judgment, but it does make judgment visible and discussable.
When reasoning is shared, decision quality scales beyond a small group of leaders. Teams gain autonomy without losing alignment.
Explain results, not just measure them
One of the clearest signs that a company has outgrown its intuition is its relationship to metrics. Many teams obsessively track performance but struggle to explain the results.
Sales movements. Retention Shifts. Commitment fluctuates. Without explanation, teams fall back on familiar narratives or personal beliefs.
Rupon pushes teams to move beyond attribution and toward understanding. Not who caused an outcome, but why it happened. This requires combining data with context and numbers with narrative.
Once teams can explain results coherently, they stop repeating the same debates and start building a comprehensive understanding.
Leadership without bottlenecks
Founder-led intuition often unintentionally becomes a bottleneck. Leaders continue to make the best decisions, but at the expense of organizational speed and resilience.
Rupon works with leaders to externalize their thinking. By explicitly explaining trade-offs, priorities, and values, leaders enable others to make independently aligned decisions.
This shift reduces dependency without compromising quality. The judgment becomes a common rather than a private good.
The emotional side of growing up
Organizational maturity is not just structural. It’s emotional.
When intuition loses dominance, teams often feel fear. Trust drops. People cling to certainty or overuse data to protect against risk.
Rupon creates environments where uncertainty is openly acknowledged. When teams are allowed to say, “We don’t know yet,” learning accelerates and defensive ability diminishes.
This emotional security is crucial. Without it, systems exist on paper but fail in practice.
A more permanent way to scale
Companies that make the transition from intuition to intention gain consistency. Decisions improve not because individuals become smarter, but because the system supports better thinking.
Rupon’s work helps SaaS organizations grow without losing momentum. They maintain speed where it matters while replacing guesswork with shared understanding.
In an industry that celebrates instinct and courage, this quieter development often determines who continues to grow and who falters.
Final reflection
Founder’s intuition can build a company. You can’t always scale one.
By helping teams replace implicit judgments with explicit intent, Rupon Anandanadarajah addresses one of the most common and least discussed challenges in SaaS growth.
How to move forward when instinct alone is no longer enough.
