What I’ve heard from Founders since January

By Justin Smith, Managing Partner at If Capital

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Since the start of 2025, I’ve spoken with over a dozen founders across the UK and Europe. Some are thinking about exits. Some are raising. Some are just starting again.

Each conversation is different, but the themes. Very familiar. 

This is not a trend report. It is just what I’m hearing and what it’s telling me about where founders need more support, not more noise.

1.     Founders are not short on ambition. They are short on people they trust.

Most founders know where they want to go. They are not lacking drive.  But what many are missing is the space to say what they are really thinking. Not in the boardroom. Not on the investor update. Just honestly.They are not asking for help with decks. They are asking if someone else has been there before and if it is okay to say, “I don’t know right now.”

2.     The big problems are not product. They are people.

The real stuff that comes up in conversation is almost always about people. Co-founders. First hires. Internal tension. Scaling too fast.  It never shows up in the pitch deck. But it shows up everywhere else. You cannot coach your way through a misaligned founding team. And yet so few founders have experienced operators to speak to when it matters most.

3.     Founder fatigue is real and often unspoken.

Some of the most capable founders I spoke with were running on fumes.  They were not struggling because they lacked belief. They were struggling because they had been carrying it alone for too long. We talk a lot about resilience. We don’t talk enough about the cost of it.

Why this matters for If Capital

This is why we are building If Capital the way we are.

Not just as investors. But as a group of people who know what it feels like to build, to carry, and at times, to question everything.

We are creating space for real conversations. And we are backing founders with real experience.

Because behind every early-stage company is a person, and if you are not listening to them, you are missing the signal.