While researching Leonardo da Vinci, I found a significant insight.
The Renaissance master—the genius who painted the Mona Lisa and designed flying machines—was obsessed with water.
This wasn’t a casual interest. Da Vinci filled over 730 pages of his notebooks with observations about water’s movement. He wrote backward in tiny script, sketching whirlpools, currents, and wave patterns with precision.
Here’s what fascinates me: Leonardo’s water studies weren’t just scientific curiosity. They reveal a fundamental approach to understanding complex systems that today’s startup founders require.
If you’re building a company now, you face a distinctive cognitive challenge:
You must focus on immediate problems while staying aware of your business ecosystem.
If you focus too narrowly, you’ll optimize for local maxima while missing existential threats. If you zoom out too far, you’ll be overwhelmed by complexity, unable to execute anything.
Leonardo’s water studies offer a masterclass in systems thinking.
“Water is the driving force of nature,” Leonardo wrote in his notebooks. He meant it literally.
While most viewed water as a simple element, Leonardo saw it as a dynamic, interconnected system with discoverable principles. In the Codex Leicester (which Bill Gates bought for $30.8 million in 1994), Leonardo filled pages with observations about how water flows around obstacles, erodes riverbanks, and forms complex vortices.
Leonardo’s revolutionary approach was his refusal to isolate water from its context. He connected water’s behavior to other systems: human blood circulation, tree branching patterns, bird flight mechanics, and machine design.
When commissioned to redesign Milan’s canal system, Leonardo created an integrated network for transportation, irrigation, and flood control. He worked with water’s natural tendencies, creating sustainable solutions that endured for generations.
Leonardo’s water studies revealed four key principles for your startup journey:
Leonardo observed how water conforms to any container while maintaining its properties. Whether in a cup, stream, or cloud, it remains water.
Take Airbnb. When the pandemic collapsed international travel in 2020, they shifted to local stays and experiences. They adapted their container while maintaining their essence: connecting people through unique accommodations.
Contrast that with Kodak, which failed to adapt to digital photography. Instead of adjusting, Kodak clung to its film business, missing the technological change.
Water doesn’t fight gravity. It flows downhill, finding the most efficient route around obstacles.
Stripe understood this principle. Instead of trying to change how businesses think about payments, they simplified implementation. They worked with existing systems instead of against them.
Compare this to Juicero, which spent millions building a complex juice machine that no one needed. They ignored user behavior, creating friction instead of simplifying the process.
A single droplet does little, but consistent water flow carves canyons through mountains.
Your startup won’t transform an industry overnight. But consistent execution—showing up daily to solve the same problem—creates compound effects that become unstoppable.
Conversely, companies like WeWork moved too fast and broke too much. Instead of letting their business model mature, they scaled recklessly, eroding trust and running out of cash.
Leonardo recognized that water’s interesting behaviors emerge when its parts interact: waves form, currents develop, vortices appear.
When your product, team, and business model interact properly, they create emergent properties. The system becomes more than the sum of its parts. But when these elements are misaligned, chaos ensues—like when Blockbuster failed to integrate streaming, leaving them unable to compete with Netflix.
Here’s a practical exercise I’ve used with startup teams:
-
Draw your business as a watershed system. Map the flow of value, information, and resources. For example, imagine a river where funding flows from investors to product development, then to user acquisition and retention.
-
Identify where water pools instead of flowing. Look for bottlenecks—like a complex approval process that delays decisions or a misaligned team structure that slows execution. For example, one founder discovered that requiring CEO sign-off for every feature created significant downstream delays.
-
Look for artificial dams. Ask where you’re resisting natural market forces. For example, a company ignored the shift to mobile-first design, treating it as a fad instead of a new channel.
-
Notice where you’re fighting currents instead of channeling energy. For example, instead of competing with Amazon’s logistics, Shopify empowered small businesses with tools to sell directly.
This exercise reveals surprising insights and transforms theoretical systems thinking into actionable strategies.
Leonardo’s water studies weren’t abstract philosophy—they were practical investigations rooted in observation and experimentation. The same is true for systems thinking in startups.
Leonardo’s water studies weren’t abstract philosophy. They were practical investigations rooted in observation and experimentation. The same is true for systems thinking in startups.
When Amazon designed their two-pizza team structure, they weren’t just optimizing for communication. They were creating conditions for innovation to develop.
As Leonardo watched the Arno River carve its path through Florence, he saw a masterclass in adaptation, persistence, and systemic behavior.
Today’s founders navigate complex systems in fast-changing markets. Those who view their startups as rigid structures will be broken by the first market flood. Those who understand their ventures as dynamic, adaptable systems—like rivers instead of machines—will navigate uncertainty with Leonardo-like wisdom.
As Leonardo wrote of water: “It never wearies, seeks the lowest place, and by continual motion preserves its purity.”
Beneath those simple observations lie valuable startup insights for those willing to dive deeper.
Did this post resonate with you? If you found value in these insights, let us know! Hit the ‘like’ button or share your thoughts in the comments. Your feedback not only motivates us but also helps shape future content. Together, we can build a community that empowers entrepreneurs to thrive. What was your biggest takeaway? We’d love to hear from you!
If you’re a software founder looking to turn your idea into a successful startup, Wildfire Labs can help you get there in just 6 months. Check out our program at https://wildfirelabs.io to learn more about our proven process, expert mentors, and the development resources we provide to help you build and scale your company. If you have any questions or need assistance with your startup, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at info@wildfirelabs.io.
