Hey there,
Happy Sunday from the first stunning snow day in NYC + Happy Hanukkah to everyone who celebrates.
We got super tactical last week when working through the 9 growth levers top companies are running in 2026.
If you’ve been reading this newsletter over the past year, you know I like to balance the mechanics with something more conceptual. More human.
Because it doesn’t matter if you have all the right growth levers if your vibe is off.
Partners can smell it. Investors can feel it. Customers experience it.
It’s one of the biggest turnoffs. It’s also one of the biggest founder fumbles.
Everyone wants to have it. People show it off when they do.
The vibe.
We’ve talked about it before here.
It’s the energy you feel the second you walk into the room… a combination of excitement, rhythm, and trust that exudes an unstoppable vibe.
You know when it’s there… and you definitely know when it’s missing.
The right vibe makes work feel lighter, ideas sharper, and goals higher. The wrong vibe is deadly and can make even the best product and the smartest people stand still.
Instead of listening to the vibe, founders lean into ego and explain it away with “it’s just a hard phase,” “everyone’s grinding,” or “this is what winning feels like.”
This will kill your company slowly.
So before you start 2026, let’s run these five vibe checks.
Each one comes with a slightly uncomfortable take, a metric that doesn’t show up on your dashboard, and a small move you can make this month.
Do you actually trust your team, execution-wise and as people?
Is this shit even fun, or are you convincing yourself to like something you actually hate?
When you look six to twelve months ahead, does your roadmap give you confidence?
How are fuck-ups handled?
Would this product still matter if growth slowed?
What’s interesting here is that we all misread vibes, even the smartest people. This exercise will help bring definitive clarity to the vibes you’re creating and help you crush 2026.
1. Do you actually like and trust your team?
It’s bullshit when people say you don’t need to like your team members. You actually do, and at the very least, have respect for them. When people don’t respect others who are building the same thing as them, the build becomes sloppy.
You put so much passion into what you’re building when you start from scratch. That’s the challenge at a startup.
Everyone typically cares so much because you know you’re shaping the future of this product.
And maybe even a small portion of the world.
This isn’t, “Do you trust your team with your deepest darkest secrets?” Yes, some things are still reserved for best friends lol. It’s more of:
Does your team have your back?
They aren’t trying to one-up you or throw you under the bus when you’re not there. We all know people like this, total vibe killer.
Does your team actually know you?
Sometimes I get so into building that it pushes me and really challenges me emotionally.
THAT is what trust is. When you can tell someone, “hey, i can’t see clearly right now and need to know what you think i should do” and you actually trust their advice.
Are you comfortable with your team holding you accountable?
Your team should be able to call you out & do it in a way that you can receive. No one is perfect, and doing this right is allllll about delivery.
Arielle Russo is incredible at illustrating different paths forward in a way that makes you see the problem from an entirely different angle.
Can they make you feel better and you know it's real?
Someone providing you clarity, and you believing them, will push you forward when you’re stuck. Make sure you have these people in your corner.
^ Lean in here! ^
Making lifelong friends while building is one of the best parts of this journey.
In 2026, I hope this pillar in your experience continues to take shape and evolve bc its magical!
P.S. Shoutout to all my besties that I met building. You know who you are, you know me sooooo well, and I’m so, so endlessly grateful.
2. Is this shit even fun?
80% fun, 20% grueling is the ideal startup ratio.
You’ll hit those peaks of euphoria after grinding it out, and it’s an unexplainable high.
When people ask if I like what I do, sometimes I’m at a loss for words trying to explain how finding the startup path changed my life.
I could never picture myself doing anything else. I could have also never pictured myself being so fulfilled with work when I was in college.
It's truly one of my favorite life experiences. When I left Citizen, I told my CEO/founder, Frame, that it was the best part of my 20s.
Every single day won’t be fun. But if you don’t want to be on another journey, you're in the right place.
Is the high you feel when things are right unbelievable?
Are you proud of the work you’re doing?
Do your friends/family believe that what you’re building fills you out as a person?
Are you challenged intellectually and emotionally? → This creates the highs.
Right now, you have the opportunity to build anything. Do anything. Create anything.
Make sure it's a fun time. Pivot if it’s not. This isn’t a practice life.
3. Let’s talk about the roadmap.
Everyone loves a good roadmap. Roadmaps build confidence that you know your business and the levers to double down on.
That the path forward is right and in your control.
But the biggest mistake execs make is believing that a full roadmap = winning.
A roadmap that is 100% full for the next 12 months with builds + bets is a hedge against having to make real strategic choices.
And if you actually think you’re going to follow a 12-month plan, think again.
You need to leave room to discover what’s new and working in your business so you can continue to find PMF over and over again (aka, product market fit).
Your customer requests will evolve. Huge challenges will come up that will reshape your builds. New tech will speed up your pace or replace your existing workflow entirely.
Your goal: Make sure you leave space for being open to opportunities. If what you’re fixating on a year later matches your roadmap entirely, then you’re eventually going to be outrun by competitors who are living in what's evolving now.
I love this counterintuitive metric: Count the number of roadmap items you kill each month. Zero kill rate usually equals fake focus and a scared leadership team.
4. Fuck-ups tolerance
Fuck-ups tolerance is the backbone of how this team takes risks, learns, and compounds. When you’re building from scratch, fuck-ups are inevitable….big, small, strategic, tactical. So the biggest failure is denying them.
In 2026, the goal is not to avoid mistakes, but to own every single one and keep going.
What is a “good” fuck-up: A good fuck-up is any mistake you fully own, fast and clearly.
A good fuck-up sounds like: “Here’s what happened, here’s where I misread it, and here’s what I’m going to do differently.”
There’s no extra credit for only “smart” mistakes; the win is radical ownership and movement.
When something breaks, the default is a quick, honest look at what actually happened and what needs to change, without shame or theater.
The focus is on:
Clear ownership
Specific lessons
Concrete next steps
People should feel safe saying, “I fucked this up,” and know that what matters most is what happens next and how their team makes them feel about it.
Move fast and break things!!
I have never seen a culture own fuck-ups quite like Rilla (incredible company). Announcing and embracing fuck-ups is a section in their all-hands.
The vibe is: we move fast, we get things wrong, we own it, we adjust, and we keep going.
If fuck-ups start getting hidden, minimized, or weaponized, that’s the signal that the culture is off and needs a reset.
5. Would this product still matter if growth slowed?
It’s wonderful to think we’re all doing something that will change the world. But “mattering” doesn’t mean “changing the world” in pitch-deck speak; it means that for a specific group of people, this is actually useful or actually good in their real lives.
In 2026, take this back and reframe it when asking whose world you’re changing? Things that matter grow and spread quickly.
If your product truly matters and makes an impact, it will do the work for you.
It isn’t always linear.
This is a gut check on durability, purpose, and if you’d still choose this problem without the external validation.
The prompt is really asking: if growth slowed or the hype died down, would this product still feel worth your time, team, and energy?
It forces you to separate “this is working because charts look good” from “this is worth it because the problem actually matters + the solution actually helps.”
If your honest answer is “no,” that doesn’t mean you quit tomorrow, but it does mean you need to examine whether your building is sticky/something with real staying power.
And it’s totally okay if it's not. Not all products are meant to live forever. The ask here is that you’re aware of what you’re building.
Well, How’d I Do?
I have seen thousands of videos of gun violence after leading marketing at Citizen. Few leave me as speechless as the video of Ahmed al Ahmed disarming anti-Semitic terrorists in Bondi Beach last night during a Hanukkah celebration.
I hope you spend time this week holding your loved ones tight and reflecting on all you have heading into 2026.
Julia
