Why Smart Founders Are Obsessed with Data (And You Should Be Too)

Data, data, data. A word that everyone knows, but not a lot of people pursue. Here’s what I mean by this:

Everyone knows that data is good to have. The more data you have, the more informed your decisions can be. Data influences what we know, and allows us to take more precise action.

That being said, data is also a tedious process. It’s hard to collect data and it takes effort.

Fortunately, it’s getting easier and easier to collect and present data. There are tons of AI tools available that can automate data collection (this saves our team hundreds of hours a month) and there are tons of services out there too that can help you collect data.

This past week, I decided that I was finally going to get a blood test so that I could get 100+ different tests run. Testosterone, food allergies, biomarkers for heart/immune/disease, stress, aging, and a ton more. For decades I’ve just been okay with “feeling okay” rather than actually seeing what the data is.

And believe me, this is a big step for me. I am super afraid of needles and blood, so doing this test took a lot of mental preparation. If a scaredy-cat like me can convince myself to get a blood test, it’s for a really really good reason.

The service I’m using is called Function Health. I found out about them through a ton of different entrepreneurship podcasts, so it really seems to be the go-to health testing service for business owners and fitness freaks. It’s $499 a year, so $42 a month, and comes with multiple lab tests, clinician reviews, and tons of data. I HIGHLY recommend it - it has been a breeze and it has saved me thousands of dollars. Doing all these tests separately outside of insurance would cost about $15,000. So it’s a great deal.

This post is not sponsored by them lol but feel free to use my referral link if you want to give it a shot: https://bit.ly/functionhealthtest

Anyways, I’m waiting for my results to come in and will keep you guys updated. With this data, I can change my eating habits if needed, as well as pretty much every other habit or decision I make on a day-to-day basis. This data is going to be invaluable for helping me live longer and at my peak performance. And I’m super excited!

This got me thinking about the other data that my business could (and should) be collecting and interpreting. While AI sometimes hallucinates when interpreting data, it is currently supreme at collecting it.

So we are using platforms like Browse and Make to set up automated data collection for our YouTube channels, as well as key performance metrics within our team. Having to input data manually has some positives (like ownership) but it just isn’t feasible with the amount of data we should be looking at.

This applies to businesses of all sizes - so even if you have a smaller business, I would recommend getting more data. It will help you make better business decisions.

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