Setting Goals for 2026: What We Tell Our Founders

It’s February, which means we’re in the thick of Q1 board meetings with our portfolio companies.

These conversations follow a pattern. We start by looking back at 2025 – what worked, what didn’t, what the team learned. Then we turn forward: what does success look like in 2026?

This is where things get interesting.

Most founders come prepared with updates on revenue, hiring plans, product roadmaps, and competitive positioning. All of that matters. But the conversation we actually need to have is simpler and harder: What’s the one thing that needs to be true in December for this year to have been a success?

We see this across the startup ecosystem – from companies at the idea stage to those with meaningful traction. The founders who have clarity on this question make different decisions. They know where to invest time. They know what to say no to. They build momentum instead of motion.

So we wanted to share what happens in these conversations: how we help founders think about goals, why it matters, and what “good” actually looks like when you’re still figuring everything out.

The Early Stage Problem: Everything is Noise

If we’re investing in you at the idea or MVP stage, you are nowhere near having product-market fit yet. You’re experimenting with everything – what to build, who to sell to, how to price it, what messaging works.

That’s exactly what you should be doing. Experimentation is the job.

The problem is that when you’re experimenting with everything, every data point feels important. You measure everything (as you should), but without a framework for what matters, you end up reacting to whatever moved last. One week you’re convinced enterprise is the play. The next week you’re pivoting to SMB. The week after that you’re rebuilding the product because an investor said the UI felt clunky.

This is what it actually feels like to search for product-market fit.

The skill you need to develop while in this phase: learn where to prioritize your focus, time, and energy. Not what to measure – measure everything. But what to actually optimize for.

That’s what a North Star metric does. It’s the one number that tells you whether you’re making progress through the noise.

Your North Star Will Change (And That’s Fine)

In the very early days, your North Star is incredibly simple: How many customers have you spoken with?

Not sold to. Not demoed to. Spoken with. Real conversations where you’re learning about their problems, testing assumptions, and figuring out whether what you think matters actually matters to them.

You set a difficult, but achievable goal: Talk to 100 potential customers this month. The number should feel uncomfortable – like you’re not sure you can hit it, but you believe it’s possible if you’re disciplined.

This is the only way to learn what to build. Every conversation de-risks an assumption. Every conversation teaches you something about the problem, the customers who have it, and whether they’ll pay for a solution.

We’ve seen founders across the ecosystem resist this. They want to start building, start shipping, start getting traction. But if you don’t talk to your customers, you’re guessing. And guessing is expensive.

So at this stage, your North Star is simple to define: 100 customer conversations by the end of Q1. Make it bold enough that you have to change your behavior to hit it.

Then You Put a Stake in the Ground

At some point – usually after you’ve talked to enough customers to see patterns – you make a decision. This is what we’re building. This is the product. This is the problem we’re solving and this is how we’re solving it.

The moment you do that, your North Star changes.

You’re still talking to customers (that never stops), but now your North Star reflects usage, adoption, or value creation:

• 500 active users running our product weekly by Q3
• 40 customers who completed onboarding and hit a core value milestone
• 10 production deployments running in customer facilities by year-end
• 5 units operating in commercial field environments by Q4

Pick a number that measures whether the thing you decided to build is actually creating value. And make it bold – a number that would meaningfully change your business if you hit it, a number that would make your next fundraise obvious.

This is the shift from learning to validating. You made a bet. The North Star tells you whether the bet is working.

If the number isn’t moving, you might need to adjust what you’re building, who you’re building for, or how you’re delivering value. The metric doesn’t tell you what to change (that’s where customer conversations come back in), but it tells you that change is needed.

This is why the North Star matters. It’s not a productivity tool. It’s a reality check.

The Framework: One North Star, Three Goals

Once you have your North Star, you need structure. This is the framework we use:

One North Star. Three supporting goals.

The three goals should answer:

• Where does my technology need to be in December?
• What should my go-to-market traction look like in December?
• Where does my team need to be in December?

These aren’t separate priorities. They’re the three dimensions you need to move for your North Star to improve.

Technology: What Value Must We Deliver?

Early on, your technology goal is about getting to a working product: “Ship MVP and get 10 customers live by Q2.”

As you mature, it becomes about making the product better, faster, or more reliable:

• “Reduce customer time-to-value from 4 weeks to 1 week”
• “Achieve 99.5% uptime across all deployments”
• “Reduce system failure rate from 12% to 3%”
• “Cut average deployment time from 6 weeks to 2 weeks”
• “Line up new manufacturer to reduce fulfillment time from 8 weeks to 3 weeks”

The technology goal should answer: what must be true about our product for customers to get value?

And it should connect directly to your North Star. If your North Star is “15 units in commercial production,” your technology goal might be “achieve 99% uptime in customer environments.” If your North Star is “30 teams shipping code with our SDK,” your technology goal might be “reduce integration time from 2 weeks to 2 days.”

The connection should be obvious.

Go-to-Market: What Motion Creates Customers?

Revenue is the lagging output. Your GTM goal should focus on the behavior that creates it.

At the earliest stages: “Complete 200 customer discovery calls by June.” You’re still learning.

As you put a stake in the ground: “Convert 20% of demos to pilot agreements.” Now you’re testing whether people will actually try what you built.

As you scale: “Generate $5M in qualified pipeline by Q4” or “Convert 30% of pilots to paid contracts within 90 days.”

Other examples: “Sign 8 pilot deployment agreements with target facilities by Q3” or “Achieve 40% conversion from pilot to production contract.”

The goal should be something you control. Not “close $X in revenue” – that depends on customer timing and budget cycles. Instead: “Run 100 qualified demos by Q4” or “Sign 10 pilot agreements by Q2.”

Those are the inputs. Revenue is what happens if you get the inputs right.

Team: Who Do We Need to Execute?

At the idea stage: “Recruit technical co-founder by Q2” or “Bring on advisor with 10+ years experience in target market.”

As you grow: “Hire first sales hire with $5M+ enterprise ARR track record by Q1” or “Hire Head of Field Operations with deployment experience by Q2.”

The team goal should answer: who do we need, and what capabilities must they have, for us to hit our other goals?

If your GTM goal is “generate $5M in pipeline,” you probably need someone who knows how to do that. If your technology goal is “deploy 15 units in production,” you need field operations expertise.

How to Know If Your Goals Are Right

Here’s how we pressure-test goals:

The number test: Is your North Star actually a number? “Get more customers” isn’t a North Star. “50 active production customers” is.

The bold test: Does your North Star feel ambitious? If you’re 90% confident you’ll hit it, it’s not bold enough. Aim for 60-70% likely – possible but not guaranteed.

The causation test: If you hit all three supporting goals, would your North Star obviously improve? If not, you picked the wrong goals.

The control test: Are you measuring things your team can directly influence?

The evolution test: Do these goals make sense for where you are right now? Or are you setting goals for the company you wish you were?

We see founders across the ecosystem set goals that would make sense for a Series B company when they’re still pre-seed. They want to “achieve $5M ARR” when they haven’t validated product-market fit. They want to “hire a VP of Sales” when they don’t have a true customer pull or repeatable sales motion yet.

Your goals should reflect reality. Where you are. What you need to learn. What’s actually blocking you from the next stage.

The Real Work: Knowing What You’re Looking For

By December, you’ll have run dozens of experiments. You’ll have tried features, tested messaging, explored customer segments, iterated on pricing.

Most of those experiments will fail. That’s startup life.

The founders who succeed aren’t the ones who never fail. They’re the ones who can recognize the failures quickly, who can look at all the noise and say: “Here’s what we learned. Here’s what actually moved the needle.”

Your North Star tells you which experiments created value. Your three goals tell you whether your actions are actually moving you forward.

Here’s the exercise:

Our North Star for 2026 is [specific metric and number].

To get there:

• Our technology needs to [specific goal with number]
• Our go-to-market needs to [specific goal with number]
• Our team needs to [specific goal]

If you can write that paragraph clearly and all the pieces connect, you have goals.

If you can’t, you have a to-do list.

It’s still early in the year. Get your goals set right.