According to Sifted, founders and investors across Europe are sharing their New Year’s resolutions for 2026, focusing on scaling startups without losing their core values. Joe McDonald, CEO of green energy startup Tem, wants to “create space” for strategic thinking and disconnecting in nature, while also finishing a campaign of the board game Gloomhaven. Richard Dana, CEO of mortgage platform Tembo, is resolving to delegate more as his company scales to 150 employees, a need highlighted by recent 360-degree reviews. Investor Tom Henriksson of OpenOcean wants two serious unicorn exits for his firm, and Juliette Devillard, founder of Climate Connection, predicts 2026 will be the year of “quiet climate,” where startups in the sector will rebrand to take the word “climate” out of their communications but continue their work.
The Founder Mindset Shift
Here’s the thing that struck me: nobody’s main resolution was “hit X million in revenue” or “raise a Series C.” The focus is almost entirely on the internal game. It’s about creating mental bandwidth. Joe McDonald wants to get into the mountains to think. Wouter Durville at TestGorilla learned that being a good CEO means not being constantly available. That’s a huge, and often painful, mindset shift for founders who are used to having their hands in everything. It seems like 2025 was the year a lot of these leaders hit a wall—whether it was a growth spurt to 150 people or just burnout—and 2026 is about building the systems, and the personal habits, to handle that scale sustainably. And hey, even the goal to finally finish a complex board game campaign is part of that. It’s about reclaiming time for deep, focused engagement on something not work-related.
The Patience Paradox
Alastair Paterson’s resolution is my favorite. After a hellish transatlantic flight with two toddlers, he realized if he could negotiate peace at 38,000 feet, scaling his AI security company, Harmonic Security, should be “a piece of cake.” His resolution? “Bring the same patience and determination to scaling up Harmonic that I brought to row 34.” That’s brilliant. We talk about “velocity” and “blitzscaling” all the time in tech, but the real secret weapon for the long haul might just be… parental-grade patience. It’s the patience to coach your team instead of doing it yourself, to wait for product-market fit to truly mature, and to endure the boring, non-linear grind of building something lasting. It’s a totally different kind of toughness.
Listening To What’s Next
The most insightful comment, I think, came from investor Alessandro Hatami. He wants to “listen to young people more and stop judging their motivation.” He admits the next generation is navigating a world shaped by AI, social platforms, and economic instability—a world structurally different from the one he grew up in. “The values haven’t vanished, they’ve evolved.” That’s a massive concession from a seasoned operator. It’s easy for older founders and VCs to dismiss new work styles or ambitions. But Hatami is basically saying the playbook has changed. The people who will build the next great companies are operating with a different set of tools and pressures. Ignoring that, or judging it, is a fast track to irrelevance. So his resolution is to listen. That’s probably the smartest business strategy mentioned in the whole bunch.
The “Quiet Climate” Era
Juliette Devillard’s prediction is a stark, pragmatic look at a sector in adjustment. Calling 2026 the year of “quiet climate” is a powerful framing. She’s not saying the work stops. Far from it. She’s saying the marketing and branding will change. Startups will “quietly rebrand” to take ‘climate’ out of their communications. Why? Probably because the term has become politically noisy, or investors are fatigued, or it just doesn’t convert as well commercially right now. But her advice is clear: “Don’t quit climate… double down.” The work is still essential; it’s just going underground, focusing on hard tech and business fundamentals over mission-driven messaging. It’s a survival tactic, and for the hardware and deep tech solutions in this space, it makes sense. It’s about building robust businesses that happen to solve climate problems, not climate businesses hoping to become robust. That’s a significant, and likely necessary, evolution.
