Nuance is the new differentiator

A new piece of mine is up on Founding Fuel:

🔗 Nuance is the New Differentiator

It came out of a recurring pattern. Teams have the data, the dashboards, the summaries—and still miss what’s actually going on.

One example: why Cash on Delivery is preferred in e-commerce but not for online bus bookings. Most theories pointed to trust or infrastructure. What mattered more was the buyer’s sense of control in one case, and the fear of missing out in the other. Same person, different posture.

Another story: second-generation entrepreneurs who didn’t adopt a new digital platform during the pandemic. Not because of usability or cost, but because they were unsure what failure would mean—to their family name, their legacy, their standing. It wasn’t a product problem. It wasn’t even a tech adoption problem. It was identity-level hesitation.

These aren’t edge cases. They’re the kinds of things that often get flattened in synthesis. And as AI tools become more sophisticated, it’s easy to accept surface patterns as complete understanding.

The piece is about that shift—and what it asks of us.

🔗 Nuance is the New Differentiator – Founding Fuel

If it’s useful, please share it forward.