No, not that kind of non-verbal gesture.

I believe this was in April 2010 and if memory serves me correct it was an event hosted at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos by Sand Hill Angels, where Vinod Khosla gave a talk. I was relatively new to the investing world at the time having started K9 Ventures just a year before in April 2009.

In his talk Vinod walked through some examples of different companies he had invested in through Khosla Ventures. I was quite blown way by the variety of different companies he presented and so I mustered up the courage to ask Vinod a question. My question was “How do you diligence or satisfy yourself that the science or the technology behind these companies is real?”

Vinod’s answer was a non-verbal. He held up his right hand and used it to pat his tummy with it, symbolizing “gut — it’s all about trusting your gut.”

Vinod may not recall our brief interaction, but that non-verbal answer from him was one of the most important lessons in becoming a micro-VC. Especially for the stage at which K9 operates — the frighteningly early stage, there is very little information to go on, and one has to decide whether or not to invest in a team just on the basis of the team, the idea, and if you’re really lucky, sometimes a prototype.

Recognizing and trusting your gut is important in the venture business. And the number of times a day you need to do that gut check can take a toll on you; by the end of the day you really don’t want to be making any decisions any more.

This is probably even more so for anyone operating as a solo-GP, but I also wonder whether it’s easier to listen to your gut when you’re relying on yourself and if the opinion of partners can influence your ability to listen to and trust your gut? Although I haven’t experienced this myself, I would imagine that in a partnership that operates well, the discussions between the partners go something like this: “Well, if you have a strong gut feel about it, then go ahead.”

I was at an Alpha event yesterday (my first) and I had two independent conversations with people about trusting your gut. One was with Lee Jacobs and I’ve forgotten the name of the second person. On my drive back while reflecting on those conversations it reminded me of the interaction with Vinod, which taught me the valuable lesson of trusting my gut.

So I wanted to take a moment to just say Thank You to Vinod for that important lesson.

You can follow me on Twitter at @ManuKumar or @K9Ventures for just the K9 Ventures related tweets. K9 Ventures is also on Facebook and Google+.