What Makes Truly Successful Founders Special?
I recently watched Sam Altman’s talk and his criteria for startup founder and entrepreneur success. It’s not what most people expect, it’s not about having the perfect resume or the most connections. It’s something deeper, more fundamental.
You either already know how to operate under pressure, or you won’t survive the tough times: months when nothing works out, when money is running out, key people leave, and your strategy collapses.
It’s also important to be able to communicate excellently, otherwise no one will join your mission or buy your product.
A relentless founder doesn’t wait for perfect conditions to act.
They don’t get lost when everything around them breaks because they initially know that problems are inevitable, and they keep moving forward.
They don’t wait for complete clarity to start acting because they know that clarity only comes through action.
And it’s about how you behave in a situation of complete uncertainty, moving in the dark, without support and approval.
The Real Success Factors
Typical expectations from founders are domain expertise and a network of contacts.
But the main quality is a personality trait: for example, persistence and endless resourcefulness.
When I evaluate investments, I’ve learned that technical brilliance means nothing if the founder crumbles under pressure. The best product in the world won’t save you if you can’t sell it, can’t recruit for it, can’t raise money for it.
Three main success factors:
1. Focus: Relevance of persistent focus on one goal - Avoiding distractions
The ability to say “no” to almost everything is underrated. I’ve seen too many founders chase shiny objects, pivot every quarter, or try to build three products at once. The successful ones have tunnel vision on their core mission - sometimes to the point where it looks like obsession.
2. Self-conviction: Belief in the possibility of achieving goals - Self-fulfilling prophecy effect
This is the founder who, when you tell them their idea is impossible, says “watch me.” Not in an arrogant way, but with quiet certainty. They’ve already run the scenarios in their head. They’ve already figured out three backup plans. Their conviction is contagious, it’s what gets the first employees to quit their comfortable jobs, the first investors to write checks, the first customers to take a chance.
3. Personal connections: Ability to form relationships necessary for success - Key aspects: Recruiting and retaining talented specialists. Selling the product. Attracting investment. Communicating with the press.
The Communication Multiplier
The importance of clear communication: It’s important to be able to present your idea briefly and clearly (for example, fit it into 25 words) - A founder’s success is directly related to their ability to convey their message - Lack of communication skills can be the reason for failure
Founder productivity: In the early stage of a startup, active involvement is needed - The founder has to wear many hats and solve many tasks independently
The early-stage founder is CEO, CTO, head of sales, customer support, sometimes all in the same day. This isn’t sustainable forever, but the ones who can’t do it at the beginning usually can’t build the foundation needed to scale later.
My Framework for Evaluating Founders
I’ll supplement Altman with my own framework - the very one I always pull out when evaluating the prospects of investing in a company.
I’ve shared the framework about founder red flags before in my telegram channel.
At its core is a method invented by California angel investor Dave Berkus in the mid-1990s, when he was looking for a simple way to give an objective pre-money valuation to startups without revenue, based on his own portfolio of hundreds of deals.
He broke down the key risks of an early-stage company into five blocks of $500k each, so that the most typical pre-revenue deal of that time (~$2.5 million) would get a clear, transparent structure.
In my experience, modern valuations are closer to $5 million, probably due to inflation.
But beyond the numbers, there’s one red flag I’ve learned to watch for above all others: founder conflict.
The Red Flag That Kills Startups
Founder conflict potential can be assessed through reviews from former colleagues and investors, ask: Would you go into a new project with this person again?
And note how quickly former partners recall disputes, legal claims, or toxic breakups.
This is the question that reveals everything. Not “Was this person smart?” or “Did the project succeed?” but “Would you work with them again?” The pause before the answer tells you as much as the answer itself.
If out of five blind references, two to three respond negatively or mention unresolved equity conflicts - this is a strong red flag: the probability of future discord is higher than the benefit from their charisma and other parameters.
I’ve seen brilliant founders with perfect metrics, incredible products, and strong traction, but they burned bridges everywhere they went. Eventually, the pattern repeats.
The co-founder conflict that killed their last company will emerge in this one too. The employee who left “for personal reasons” will turn out to have been driven out. The investor who “wasn’t a good fit” will turn out to have been shut out of key decisions.
The Pattern That Matters
Here’s what I’ve learned from my own experience: The truly successful founders have a pattern of leaving things better than they found them. Former colleagues speak about them with respect, even when the venture failed. Co-founders who split with them stayed on good terms. Employees who moved on still recommend them.
Because startups are built by people. And people remember how you made them feel when things got hard, when the money ran out, when the strategy failed, when everything was on fire.
The founders who land the burning plane? They’re the ones who kept their team calm, who owned their mistakes, who didn’t point fingers when it all went wrong.
That’s what makes them special. Not their domain expertise. Not their network. But their character is under pressure.
And that’s what I look for when I invest.