• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year

2

Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'

3

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 

1

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year

2

Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'

3

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
Commentary

Here’s Why Good Resumes Won’t Signal Promising Team Members

By
Randy Rayess
Randy Rayess
and
Bethany Cianciolo
Bethany Cianciolo
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Randy Rayess
Randy Rayess
and
Bethany Cianciolo
Bethany Cianciolo
Down Arrow Button Icon
December 17, 2015, 10:17 AM ET
Courtesy of VenturePact

The Entrepreneur Insider network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in America’s startup scene contribute answers to timely questions about entrepreneurship and careers. Today’s answer to the question “When making a tough business decision, how do you know when to trust your gut?” is written by Randy Rayess, cofounder of VenturePact.

The key for any startup founder is to know which decisions to make and which decisions to delegate. If you end up making every decision, you’ll be overwhelmed with micromanaging when you should instead be focused on empowering the team to make their own decisions.

Any new innovative technology will have uncertainty, which is why standard return on investment or net present value calculations won’t work as well. It’s these cases where you’ll have to trust your gut and resist overanalyzing and delaying the tough decisions.

What I’ve found is that it’s always easier to delay the tough decisions and tackle the simpler problems first. But fearing making a mistake is much worse than trying something new and failing.

At VenturePact, we’ve focused on building a culture of experimentation, where everyone is incentivized to experiment and search for new ideas and ways to improve. To make sure there is some control, we set deadlines and objectives to assess how the experiment is running. We know that many experiments will fail and will need to be shut down, but this is the best way to find the ones that work.

See also: This is How Long it Should Take to Make a Decision

One key gut decision we had to make was deciding who would lead our product team. Hiring an executive is a critical decision and has a big impact on any company’s performance and culture. Some companies try to create algorithms based on a variety of resume factors to predict performance, but given the importance of cultural fit, we decided to go with our gut for all hiring decisions. We look for people who we think can embrace our culture of experimentation and who align well with our core values.

Who to hire, promote, and fire are just some examples of tough gut decisions you’ll have to make on a regular basis to ensure you have the right team in place. Ultimately, we have experimented with our hiring process to see whether or not our instincts are good at identifying the right people. My team and I have found that informal settings such as a dinner or a lunch with a candidate prior to hiring helps us get a better feel for cultural fit.

Having a great discipline around experimentation makes you a lot more comfortable handling tough decisions and going with your gut, as it creates a more agile business and allows your entire team to improve.

Randy Rayess is a Wharton/Penn undergraduate alumnus and cofounder at VenturePact, a resource for on-demand vetted engineering teams.

Read all responses to the Entrepreneur Insider question: When making a tough business decision, how do you know when to trust your gut?

Why You Shouldn’t Think Twice About Firing an Employee by William Vanderbloemen, founder and CEO of Vanderbloemen Search Group.

This is How the Most Successful Leaders Make Tough Decisions by Simon Berg, CEO of Ceros.

The Best Way to Make Fast Decisions by Vijay Ramani, cofounder and CEO of Totspot.

What Every Leader Can Learn From Alfred P. Sloan About Tough Decisions by Frank Fabela, Vistage CEO peer advisory board chair.

Proof Data Can’t Always Help You Make Decisions by Morgan Hermand-Waiche, founder and CEO of Adore Me.

Doing This Will Help You Make Tough Decisions by Suneera Madhani, founder and CEO of Fattmerchant.

Here’s What Happens When You Don’t Trust Your Gut by Gesche Haas, founder of Dreamers//Doers.

Here’s What You Should Do When You Have to Make a Tough Decision by Alexander Goldstein, founder and CEO of Eligo Energy.

Never Make a Big Decision Without Doing This First by Feris Rifai, cofounder and CEO of Bay Dynamics.

Here’s How Questioning Decisions Can Ruin a Business by Pat Peterson, founder and CEO of Agari.

About the Authors
By Randy Rayess
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
By Bethany Cianciolo
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Commentary

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Commentary

brotman
CommentaryVenture Capital
I’ve spent 25 years in venture capital. Here’s how it quietly shut ordinary Americans out of the AI wealth boom—and what could fix it
By Steve BrotmanMay 22, 2026
18 hours ago
cox
CommentarySuccession
McKinsey studied 200 family business successions. The biggest problem wasn’t the heir — it was the outgoing CEO
By Acha Leke and Chaitali MukherjeeMay 22, 2026
19 hours ago
himanshu
CommentaryLayoffs
I’ve led companies through every major tech disruption. AI washing is the same mistake, every time
By Himanshu PalsuleMay 22, 2026
21 hours ago
trump
CommentaryWhite House
Trump Accounts have a bigger problem than billionaire stock donations
By Jin Huang and Stephen RollMay 21, 2026
2 days ago
brigham
CommentaryRailroads
The U.S. freight network is broken by design. One merger could start fixing it
By Brigham A. McCownMay 21, 2026
2 days ago
Elon Musk sits with his fists together, looking up.
Commentaryspace
SpaceX will be worth trillions, but the space station that made it possible is worth even more — if we don’t squander it
By Tejpaul BhatiaMay 20, 2026
2 days ago

Most Popular

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year
Success
Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year
By Preston ForeMay 21, 2026
2 days ago
Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'
Success
Despite a $500 million net worth, Shaq just finished his fourth degree. He warns graduates: 'Your character will take you further than your resume'
By Preston ForeMay 20, 2026
3 days ago
Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
Workplace Culture
Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
By Preston ForeMay 19, 2026
3 days ago
Indeed chief economist says we’re entering an era of ‘great mismatch’ thanks to a generational imbalance of workers
Success
Indeed chief economist says we’re entering an era of ‘great mismatch’ thanks to a generational imbalance of workers
By Emma BurleighMay 22, 2026
15 hours ago
Pay transparency is exposing a bigger problem: Most companies can't explain why they pay what they pay
Workplace Culture
Pay transparency is exposing a bigger problem: Most companies can't explain why they pay what they pay
By Sydney LakeMay 20, 2026
2 days ago
Microsoft reports are exposing AI's real cost problem: Using the tech is more expensive than paying human employees
AI
Microsoft reports are exposing AI's real cost problem: Using the tech is more expensive than paying human employees
By Jake AngeloMay 22, 2026
13 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.