REACT: Responding to Life’s Ambushes as a Startup Founder

As a startup founder, the journey often feels like navigating a battlefield. Challenges come from every direction—unexpected competition, funding setbacks, market volatility, or even internal team struggles. While I’ve never been in an actual ambush, the military concept of REACT has taught me invaluable lessons about how to face these challenges head-on. Originally designed to help soldiers respond to ambushes, REACT is an acronym that stands for:

1. Recognize reality
2. Evaluate our assets
3. Assess possible options and outcomes
4. Choose a direction and communicate
5. Take action and execute

Here’s how I’ve adapted the REACT framework to lead my startup through the inevitable ambushes of entrepreneurship.

1. Recognize Reality: Articulate the Problem

In the heat of the moment, denial or wishful thinking is often our first instinct. When a critical employee resigns unexpectedly or a product launch fails, it’s tempting to minimize the impact. But the first step in the REACT framework is to face reality.

As a founder, I’ve learned the importance of being brutally honest about what’s happening. Is the problem a temporary hiccup, or does it reveal a deeper flaw in the business model? For example, when we recently experienced a decline in user adoption, I initially wanted to believe it was just a seasonal dip. But by digging into the data, I recognized it was an indicator of friction in our onboarding process.

Recognizing reality means being willing to confront hard truths—and doing so quickly. The sooner you acknowledge the ambush, the faster you can act.

2. Evaluate Our Assets

Once I’ve identified the problem, the next step is to take stock of what I have at my disposal to address it. In military terms, this means assessing your weapons, personnel, and environment. In a startup, it’s about understanding your team’s strengths, your financial runway, and any external resources you can leverage.

For me, this step is all about clarity. Who on the team can step up? What tools or technology can simplify the process? How much time do we really have to solve this? During a cash-flow crunch last year, I evaluated our assets and realized that we had a strong network of advisors and investors who believed in us. That realization gave me the confidence to initiate frank conversations about bridge funding—conversations I might have avoided had I not fully assessed our position.

Evaluating your assets reminds you of your capabilities, even when things feel overwhelming.

3. Assess Possible Options and Outcomes

In the fog of war—or the chaos of a startup—it’s easy to feel like there’s only one way out. But this step in the REACT framework emphasizes the importance of considering all your options.

When our startup encountered a major issue with scaling our tech stack, I initially thought the only solution was a costly rebuild. However, after sitting down with the engineering team and mapping out our options, we realized we could implement a phased approach that allowed us to scale incrementally without breaking the bank.

Assessing options isn’t just about finding the cheapest or quickest solution. It’s about balancing risk and reward, short-term fixes versus long-term stability, and understanding how each path aligns with your startup’s mission.

4. Choose a Direction and Communicate

Once you’ve evaluated your options, it’s time to make a decision and ensure everyone is on the same page. In an ambush, hesitation can be deadly; in a startup, it can be equally damaging.

I’ve learned that as a leader, decisiveness and clear communication are non-negotiable. Ambiguity breeds anxiety, and your team looks to you for confidence and clarity. Whether it’s pivoting a product strategy or reorganizing workflows, explaining the "why" behind your decision is just as important as the decision itself.

When a key hire recently didn’t work out, I had to pivot our hiring strategy. I explained to the team why we were shifting toward hiring contractors over full-time employees in the short term. This transparency not only aligned everyone around the new plan but also reinforced trust.

5. Take Action and Execute

This is where the rubber meets the road. In both military and entrepreneurial contexts, the best-laid plans mean nothing without execution. Taking action often requires courage—especially when the outcomes are uncertain.

For me, this step is about two things: momentum and accountability. It’s not enough to delegate tasks; I need to track progress and be ready to adapt if the initial plan doesn’t work out. When we faced a marketing campaign that flopped earlier this year, we didn’t let the failure paralyze us. We quickly regrouped, launched smaller experiments, and used the results to guide our next steps.

Action creates momentum, and momentum keeps your team engaged and resilient.

Lessons from REACT: Turning Ambushes into Opportunities

The REACT framework has become a mindset for me—not just in my role as a startup founder, but in life. It’s taught me that while I can’t control the ambushes, I can control my response. Every ambush is an opportunity to test your leadership, resilience, and creativity.

Here are three takeaways I’ve embraced as I apply REACT in entrepreneurship:

1. Preparation matters. Just as soldiers train for ambush scenarios, founders need to prepare for crises. Building a strong team, maintaining financial buffers, and fostering open communication are all forms of preparation.
2. Adaptability is a superpower. No plan survives first contact with reality. Success lies in your ability to adapt quickly and effectively.
3. Trust your instincts, but validate with data. In moments of pressure, gut instinct is valuable, but decisions grounded in data are stronger.

Startups, like life, are full of ambushes. But with a REACT mindset, those ambushes become moments of transformation. Recognize the challenge, evaluate your strengths, assess your options, choose a path, and act decisively. You’ll not only survive—you’ll thrive.