The 2026 Playbook

𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞

As we close out the year, one truth keeps echoing: founders shape the outcome more than the idea ever will.

In the past twelve months, we've seen people make something from nothing and we've seen credentialed founders burn cash chasing illusions. What separated the durable from the delusional? It wasn't just market or model. It was energy.

The missionary builders kept going when things broke. The product tourists moved on when the trend shifted. The low-burn operators shipped while high-burn teams held planning meetings. The patterns became impossible to ignore.

So here's what we're taking into 2026: the founder energy we want more of, and the behaviors we're done underwriting.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈’𝐦 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐘𝐞𝐬 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲 ✅

1. Missionary Builders with Scar Tissue: these founders know the customer intimately because they were the customer. They've tried and failed before. They've felt the pain, built the first version, sold it by hand, and kept going when no one was watching.

2. Low-Burn, High-Velocity Operators: we're tracking founders who move fast, ship often, and respect capital. They're allergic to bloated teams and pitch-deck theater. They take $50K and turn it into a real test. They create momentum with urgency, not budget.

3. Multi-Modal Earners: we're drawn to people building income stacks, not betting it all on one source. DTC brand plus licensing deals. Software product plus content stream. The ability to survive and self-fund while compounding upside changes the risk equation entirely.

4. Grit Without Drama: we don't want martyrs, we want quiet killers. The ones who face chaos, setbacks, failure and keep going without asking for applause.

5. Unorthodox Trajectory, Fluent Execution: we're looking for non-obvious profiles - creators who became coders, gig workers who became fintech founders, athletes who became builders. What matters isn't the résumé, it's fluency: can they talk to customers, build the thing, sell it, and survive long enough to win?

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈’𝐦 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐍𝐨 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲 ❌

1. Product Tourists: if you're just "exploring" a category, watching a trend, or playing startup, I’m out. 2026 is too expensive for sightseeing.

2. High Burn, No Traction: founders spending like they've already won, but haven't earned dollar one from customers. Custom platforms before proving demand or building out teams before validating product-market fit.

3. Professional Fundraisers Without a Core Skill: we've watched founders spend more time crafting deck narratives than talking to customers. They can pitch, network, and use buzzwords. However, ask them to build the product or troubleshoot when things break and the skillset disappears.

4. AI Prompt Engineers as Founders: founders positioning ChatGPT + nice UI as defensible technology or claiming "AI-powered" when it's just API calls to someone else's model. If your entire product disappears when OpenAI launches a feature update, you don't have a scalable business.

5. Uncoachable Flash: we've walked away from high-pedigree founders with real potential because they couldn't hear feedback, wouldn't do the boring stuff, or walked away when things went sideways. Credentials don't predict coachability.

𝐌𝐲 𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐤

𝐀 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧

𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫

𝐐: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫?

I care less about pedigree and more about velocity. How fast can someone learn, ship, and adapt? A Stanford MBA who takes six months to validate an assumption loses to someone who tests three ideas in the same timeframe.

Lived experience now outweighs borrowed insight. Founders who've felt the problem firsthand speak with specificity that market research can't replicate. That authenticity creates endurance.

The biggest shift: I now ask "what happens if this specific idea fails?" earlier in conversations. Missionaries will pivot tactics while staying locked on the problem. Tourists will chase whatever trend appears next.

𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤

𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬

2026 will belong to founders who execute without ego.

We're not looking for perfect ideas or polished decks. We're looking for founders who rebuild when things break. People who treat obstacles as data, not defeat.

If that's you (or someone you know) reach out. Let's build.

Auditing more talent next week,
Will Stringer

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