I worked with 100+ founders last year. Here’s what the top performers did differently.

Reflections on 2025 to empower your 2026

Last year, I worked with over 100 founders. A handful of them seriously stood out to me.

In this post, I will break down the specific traits that set the best founders apart—and the ones that will get you far in 2026.

Which trait are you best at? Let me know in the poll below.

Real focus

• They focus on getting their startup to the next level: identifying the next plateau to reach (rather than rushing to world domination from 0 sales).

• They know you can’t easily test 6 things at the same time; instead, they test them in three waves of 2.

• They are not easily distracted by shiny new objects (new tech, new channels, etc.). If something new pops up, they keep working on the thing they strategically committed to.

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are” - Steve Jobs

Great at balancing short-term and long-term

• The best founders I worked with last year understood that their grand vision is 5 to 10 years away.

• They actively separate what they will do this year from where they want to be in 10 years. This helps them avoid working on things that are not relevant right now.

• Very often, these founders automatically prioritise sales, because they know exactly where they want to be number-wise.

True customer obsession

• The best founders know that in the end, it’s about the customer, not their startup. Obsessing over your customer rarely goes too far.

• They are in contact with many of their customers in informal ways, such as phone calls, and often have a group of “ambassador customers” who preach to their circles.

• For these founders, the customer is an endlessly interesting phenomenon to understand. Each time they find a new variant or discover a new aspect of their customer, they are excited to report: “You know what’s funny? This group does Y instead of X.”

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Systems thinking understanding of their business

• These founders think of their startup as a system they are building, and understand that changing one thing has consequences elsewhere.

• They can easily create a model or project numbers to get a sense of how the system works, but they don’t treat this as reality: they see this exercise as a way to uncover interdependencies.

• They understand that customers are a key node in their system, and easily steer the conversation back to how it links to the value they create for those customers.

Sales and an opportunistic mindset

• Their lead list is already populated, and they are doing 20 hours of sales per week.

• Some founders just see opportunities everywhere. Whoever they speak to, they can think of ways to generate value.

• They think in sales processes, such as defining the next step, making proposals, finding ways to help the customer, and making money.