Attributes over experience

What does it really take to build in this era of velocity and rocketships? 

There is an argument that AI has made becoming a founder easier than ever. Anyone can vibe code a prototype and start attracting customers and generating revenue for a great app or software solution. If you don’t need to know how to code, anyone can become a tech founder. Right? 

The truth is that being a successful founder is harder than ever. Competition is fierce. Expectations around revenue growth are higher than ever. And founders have to maintain relentless velocity to survive. 

It’s easier than ever to start a company, but to scale a really great one is getting harder. In this new era, only the very best founders survive, and success demands more than ever. 

We see this in the founders that we work with, and when you look at the data there is a direct correlation between a founder’s willingness to make sacrifices, their judgement under pressure and their ability to raise investment. 

Every founder we work with completes a survey which maps their strengths, weaknesses, attitude to work and aspirations. By mapping the results against the fundraising performance of their startups, we are starting to show the attributes that might predict founder success. 

Willingness to sacrifice

The most notable is the willingness to sacrifice. As well as the number of hours a founder will work, this covers their unflinching recognition that being a founder requires everything.

Founders who said they were prepared to make sacrifices raised 2.2x more than founders who said they couldn’t make sacrifices. And their valuations were 1.7 higher. 

Some of the highest-raising founders in our study reported working 90+ hours a week.

Of course this isn’t sustainable, and the best founders recognise this is a marathon, not a sprint, and pace themselves accordingly. But the data shows that founders prepared to go the distance will reap the biggest rewards.

Will to Win

The number one most highly correlated attribute to success is the will to win - someone who wakes up every day and just wants to win. Some of our best founders are ex-athletes or e-sports gamers. They may still be very young and may have never worked a day in business, but they have that quality.

Founders with a strong desire to win raise, on average, 8x more external capital than those without it, and are 2-3x more likely to successfully raise than founders with low to moderate drive. This is probably one of the more binary attributes, founders either have it or they don’t. Being mildly driven or ambitious is not enough - outsized outcomes are concentrated among founders with an extreme, white-hot desire to win.

Conclusion - What it really takes

Across the remaining variables that we test for - grit, ability to sell, intellectual aptitude and ability to execute, we see similar trends play out. 

This data is our attempt to start quantifying the characteristics and traits that the best founders share. And they are a good reminder that what it really takes to be a founder in 2026 is more extreme than ever. Only the best, most dedicated founders survive.