In 2026, you want to build credible business plans and trust when money is tighter: a field guide from 10 battle-tested founders.
How should founders write their business plans — and manage investor relationships — in a shifting market that increasingly values truth and control over the old reflex of speed and slogans? Over the past weeks, I sat down with more than ten seasoned entrepreneurs to pressure-test this simple but vital question: I listened, I challenged, I compared scars. What follows is a synthesis of their practice in the field: clear points of convergence, honest disagreements, and the words that stayed with me.
This piece also draws on more than a hundred interviews I’ve conducted since 2021 with successful entrepreneurs in my podcast 40 Nuances de Next, an unusually rich archive of open, long-form conversations about what actually works and doesn’t work.
I began these conversations with an entrepreneur bias: good companies are built on unit economics, not on Excel acrobatics. The founders largely confirmed it. “Trust is built through results,” Marta Sjögren, co-founder of Paebbl, told me, advocating for the sober craft of showing a trajectory to strong unit economics, backed by proof points already delivered. Loïc Soubeyrand, founder of Swile was blunter: “Selling a product cheaper than what it costs you is not entrepreneurship.” Behind both statements is the same demand from investors and teams alike: show me the machine, not the mirage.
What changed is simple to say and hard to ignore. Money is tighter, rounds are farther apart, and funds have less liquidity and a higher need for reassurance than in the pre- and mid-COVID boom years. The old reflex — spend early for rapid growth and assume an “up” round 12–18 months later — now breaks more often than it bends, outside a few speculative pockets (basically : AI & Defence including cybersecurity). So the BP and the narrative must adapt: stage milestones that de-risk the next raise, prove repeatability before scaling spend, and make your levers and unit economics the headline — not the footnotes.
“Trust is built through results.” — Marta Sjögren, Paebbl
“Don’t sell cheaper than it costs you.” — Loïc Soubeyrand, Swile
Ambition calibrated to turbulence
A second thread quickly emerged: ambition calibrated to turbulence. Paolin Pascot (co-founders of Agryco, former Agriconomie argues for business plans that are “less marked” — still sexy enough to convince, but obviously attainable in a world of constant “mini-storms”, which characterize what we identify as a global state of “permacris” In practice, that means robust funnel math, CAC/LTV anchored in real cohorts rather than slogans, and a repeatable GTM before scaling beyond a founder’s home advantage — points that Sjögren systematically tests with teams before she hires the next salesperson.
Hortense Harang (co-founder of We Trade Local / Fleurs D’Ici) put the spotlight on vanity targets. Years ago, she was pressed to “vitaminize” her plan to hit a totem number — fifty million in five years — and watched how quickly invented revenue lines corrode trust once the round closes. Her lesson: raise what you need, because the more you raise, the more you burn — and the more pressure there is to run faster where time can’t be rushed.
Pascal Lorne (cofounder of GoJob, that successfully exited a few weeks ago) summarizes this with a simple rule: no “investor BP” that you don’t intend to live with. Reputation compounds; so does over-promising.
Eric Carreel (founder of Withings among others adds a market warning: “This is not a quit-or-double market. Think ‘sale, then scale’.” In other words, stop planning as if you were in a casino.
Should you show a worst-case scenario?
A recurring, practical question was whether to disclose and share a worst-case scenario in the BP, to signal that you understand your cash responsibility in a market that demands agility and credible fallback plans when time-to-money slips.
Founders split. Pascot believes it can signal maturity if you frame it as levers you control; others fear it reads like a confidence gap pre-term sheet. My take: tailor to the room, but always keep your levers visible to yourself — spend gates, hiring gates, pricing, focus — and never allow a narrative to detach you from the steering wheel.
“Turn your board into a crew”
This brings us to alignment and governance. Pascot’s wording stuck with me: “Turn your board into a crew.” Bring managers into the room, it will motivate and empower them to be confronted by your board directors. And your investors will develop more trust through real relationships and even a shared sense of belonging within your crew. Remove the CEO/CFO screen, create shared experience and a no-surprise cadence. Sjögren completes the picture with a cultural rule I endorse as an ex-operator: reverse the flow of bad news so it arrives fast, with options attached.
Not all disagreements were tactical. Axel Dauchez (co-founder of Make.org) insisted on a founder’s inner stance. Deals, he reminded me, shape how much truth you can put on the table without being penalized — but whatever the terms, “never lose mastery of your destiny.” Tell the story you must in order to raise and to tick the boxes honestly, but keep a cash-control trajectory you believe in, and push for terms that preserve alignment through cycles.
Back to basics — and to margins
On the market’s new baseline, several voices converged. Mathieu Nebra (co-founder of Open Classroom) called the end of shortcuts: we chased high valuations and took bad habits; we are back to basics — a company must become profitable. Nicolas Reboud (co-founder of Shine that exited successfully in 2020) added an early-stage reality: with AI lowering prototyping friction, seed investors now expect more mature products than a few years ago.
In sustainability markets, Rachel Delacour’s (cofounder and CEO of Sweep) warning is surgical: protect margins while you grow. “Think 2026 with the margin of 2028 in mind.” Don’t trade long-term unit economics for short-term top line — it’s very hard to climb back.
Using the “flow” without faking it
Two framing shifts will help you meet the moment.
First, use the “flow” without faking it. As Soubeyrand put it, your job is to transform today’s flow — AI — into the timeless: better economics, faster learning cycles, stronger moats. That means standardizing how AI is used inside your company as operating leverage, not as deck varnish. Maxime Leroux’s (CEO) team at ClimateView runs about forty people with twenty to thirty AI agents; they institutionalize “master prompts” to guide agents with company context and, in doing so, effectively double the workforce capacity.
Second, frame ambition around what you control, not what you hope. Carreel’s advice is direct: “Build your plan around repeatability first, scale second. Show that you can acquire a customer profitably, deliver the service reliably, and retain them predictably. Once those levers are proven, you can accelerate. But if you scale before you have unit economics, you’re just burning faster.”
What to do next, concretely
Start with the machine room:
- Put today’s and at-scale COGS (costs of good sold) on the page.
- Write down gross and contributive margins, CAC/CLTV (customer acquisition costs over customer lifetime value ratio) proven by cohort analysis (ie groups of new customers sharing targeting characteristics that can be followed and tracked) , and conversion rate by funnel stage.
- Show a repeatable motion to prove your PMF (Product Market Fit) — beyond your personal network — before you scale spend or headcount.
- Keep Plan A ambitious and attainable, but name the levers you will pull if the wind shifts.
- Maintain trust and prevent surprises with a predictable board meeting rhythm, well prepared and straightforward content. Empower functional leaders to present directly and increase everyone’s sense of belonging and empowerment. It’s key for effective board onboarding and keeping them informed and closed to you.
- Then size the round to milestones that truly de-risk the next one — and explain why more money now won’t just “make you burn more.”
- Cash Is King, a basic rule that has been forgotten when cash was abnormally cheap: a mandate for proactive financial management. It is imperative to prioritize cash flow and working capital constant optimizations, and acknowledge that cash value has increased. This demands a proactive, cash-centric approach, which includes conservative cash projections that fully anticipate delays in both invoicing and payments.
If there is a single lesson I would offer a first-time founder today, it is this: great cycles reward speed and story; tough cycles reward truth and control. In 2026, you need both — a story anchored in timeless economics, and operating proof that you can steer through turbulence with clear levers, fast learning, and a board that rows with you.
P.S. This article is based on no BS conversations with Marta Sjögren, Loïc Soubeyrand, Paolin Pascot, Hortense Harang, Pascal Lorne, Axel Dauchez, Mathieu Nebra, Nicolas Reboud, Maxime Leroux, Rachel Delacour, Eric Carreel.
I thank them warmly for their time and candour.
