2026 Will Be My Year of Failures

On chaos, cycling, and what comes next

Hey.

2025 is almost gone and I’m not going to lie - it was a strange one. For me. For a lot of people I know. Some had their best year ever. Others got knocked down hard. The ground shifted under all of us whether we wanted it to or not.

I felt it too. That mix of excitement and dread sitting in your chest at the same time. Not knowing if the changes happening around us are opportunities or threats. Probably both.

If you felt any of that this year, I want you to know … you’re not broken. You’re not behind. You’re paying attention. And this is exhausting because everything is moving so fast.

Where I landed

For most of my career, I did what made sense. I optimised. I stuck to what worked. I avoided unnecessary risk. That’s the smart play, right? Find something that works and protect it.

That worked. For a while.

But the world is changing so fast now that playing it safe might be the riskiest thing you can do. The strategies that got us here are expiring. What worked last year already feels outdated. And that pace isn’t slowing down.

At first, this terrified me.

Then something clicked.

When the rules change, everyone starts from zero. The advantages that used to matter - connections, experience, resources - they still help, but they’re not the moat they used to be. The people who’ve been “winning” for years? Many of them are clinging to playbooks that are falling apart. The gatekeepers are losing their grip.

Which means right now, today, is one of the best times in history to try something new.

Not because it’s easy. Because the barriers are lower than they’ve ever been.

My plan for 2026

I’m going to fail as many times as possible.

Not succeed. Fail.

I’m planning to launch multiple new ventures over the next twelve months. Each one gets dedicated resources and a simple rule: validate whether it works within four to five months. If it works, double down. If it doesn’t, kill it and move on.

No ego. No attachment. Just experiments.

Try ten things. Expect nine to fail. Or maybe all. Try to find the one that doesn’t.

In a world moving this fast, waiting for certainty is a trap. You’ll never have enough information. You’ll never feel ready. The window will close while you’re still planning.

Better to launch ugly and learn than to polish forever and miss the moment.

This is so hard for me. I’m a designer. Everything in me wants to make it perfect before anyone sees it. But I have to overcome that. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Ship the thing that makes me cringe a little. Because the alternative is shipping nothing.

2025 - what worked and what didn’t

I can say this with some confidence because 2025 taught me a lot about what actually matters.

At Pony, we had probably our most intense year ever. We worked with some incredible companies. Rootstock - the OG in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Smartstream - 1200+ people fintech, repositioned for the AI era. IMSERV - 600+ people, helped them move beyond metering into energy intelligence. Radius rebranded, then raised $7M in a Pantera Capital-led round. Fluent rebranded, then raised $8M led by Polychain Capital. Adalfi rebrand to accelerate their global expansion - they’ve now disbursed $200M to 50,000+ borrowers.

We also launched two new things: Uncomparison.com for pure strategy work, and ProjectLink.co - something we’d been using internally that’s now available to everyone.

But it wasn’t all wins.

Q3 was rough.

• Personal stuff meant me and my co-founder had to step back. Life gets cruel. It’s normal. It hit the business too.

• On a separate note - we took some projects we shouldn’t have. A reminder to trust your gut and say no more often than feels comfortable.

• LinkedIn randomly tanked my reach by 10x overnight. A reminder that building on platforms you don’t own is dangerous.

Life happened. Business continued. Both are true. And that’s okay.

On a personal level, I started cycling this year. Now I love cruising London streets with my headphones on. I know, not the safest. But there’s something about moving through the city at speed, with the rhythm of the music playing, not thinking about work. It’s become my thing. Sometimes the smallest changes make the biggest difference.

What I believe now more than ever

The future isn’t giant corporations and billion-dollar startups. It’s small profitable businesses run by smart people who figured out what they’re good at. AI makes this possible. You don’t need a team of fifty anymore.

Human services will become more valuable, not less. When software becomes a commodity - and it will - the humans who can think, judge, and take responsibility become the real differentiator.

You don’t need permission. You don’t need investors. You don’t need a massive audience or a perfect plan.

You need to start.

Strategy matters. Distribution matters. But more than anything, showing up matters. Writing, making, shipping, learning. Every single day. It’s exhausting and exhilarating and it’s the only way forward.

It’s on you

I don’t know which of my bets will pay off next year. Most won’t. If any. But that’s the point.

Somewhere in those failures, there’s something worth finding.

If 2025 left you feeling uncertain about what comes next - good. That means you’re not sleepwalking. You’re awake.

The opportunities have never been bigger. Yes, staying ahead has never been harder. But the answer isn’t to freeze. It’s to move. To try. To sweat. To grind. To hustle.

If you’re reading this, you’re already the kind of person who’s thinking about what’s next instead of hiding from it.

That puts you ahead of most people.

So yes, go fail at something next year. Try the thing. Launch it ugly. See what happens.

But also - find your version of cycling through London with headphones on. The thing that has nothing to do with work. The thing that just makes you feel alive.

You’ll need both.

See you on the other side.

Stef