Founders Column Survey: The key habits that make successful founders

 

Every week we send the same list of questions to a different founder from companies of all sizes, and feature them in our Founders Column. Each week we get new answers, insights, perspectives, and tips on how we all can shine a bit brighter.

We heard 25 founder stories and were inspired by each one in a different way. But as we kept going, we started noticing similarities in some of the founders’ answers. We decided to share this small ‘patterns’ with you and give you a glimpse of what small habits make these people so successful. Whether these are similar to habits you have taken on or different, we hope you learn something new and inspiring. Enjoy.

64% exercise daily.

Eynat Guez, Papaya Global: “This is my time to clear my head, clear my thoughts, and think.” These sports include swimming, climbing, and running. 

20% of founders meditate daily.

Roy Mann, monday.com: “It gives me perspective on things, on what matters and what doesn’t.”

12% have a passion for music and start their day with a song they love.

Roy Yamner, GlassesUSA: "A day without music is a day not lived.”

24% listen to a podcast daily.

Lior Sion, Bringg: “You never know where inspiration will come from.”

12% enjoy art.

Moran Price, IRP systems: ‘I’m passionate about art, and especially the impressionists who changed the history of modern art.’ 

8% suggested working with family and friends.

Gad Maor, Storemaven : “Avoid working with friends and family, that is advice I definitely would (and do) ignore. Over the years and through all the different companies we started together, we encouraged the good side of nepotism – embracing your talented friends and family and getting to work with your favorite people every day.”

20% trust their intuition more than anything.

Erez Naaman, Scopio labs: “I would ignore the advice to quantify everything. The trick is to know where to trust your intuition.”

16% mentioned the importance of understanding the context of every advice given.

Avi Eyal,l Entree Capital:“It’s very important to know where each piece of advice is coming from, who is giving it, and what their context is.”

28% are passionate about social impact, doing good, and helping grow others.

Chen Levanon, Kumbaya: ‘In the last couple of years, I realized that real-world business education starts in middle school and even before. These days, I am very passionate about educating teenagers to prepare them for the real world as much as possible.’

16% were influenced by the book ‘The Hard Things About Hard Things’ by Ben Horowitz. 12% of founders recommended Sheryl Sandberg’sbooks ‘Lean In’ & ‘Option B’.

Yael Florenthal, Spetz: "I can honestly share that it helped change some critical patterns, which in turn served me when we started our journey."

*Other recommended books include The Lean Startup, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, The Design of Everyday Things, The Art of Strategy and many more.

12% said their best investment was going to therapy.

Sanj Sanampudi, Concert: “My therapist is the best friend money can buy.”

32% said their best investment was spending time with their family.

Adi Azaria, Workiz/Sisense: "Taking paternity leave. When my younger son was born, I switched with my wife, paused everything, and took two months off. I did nothing but spend time with him. I feel that I know him and what he feels even without speaking. It is the best investment I made in my life."

68% are motivated by their family and team on hard days.

Sharon Dayag , Eloops: “My wife, my family, and the team at Eloops are the people closest to me and they are the ones who make sure I am at my peak even during the tough days. Everyone’s support throughout the journey is evident and I appreciate it every day.”

16% said positivity and optimism is very important for their lives.

Nitzan Cohen Arazi, Jolt: "I hold a strong internal balance that helps me remain grounded, realistic, and resilient, while in very stressful situations. In order to do that, I’ve released “drama” from my work environment."

20% choose a minimalist approach to life.

Valerie Donahue, Chatterboss: “At the end of the day, belongings of any kind take up mental overhead, and being down to the basics has been really liberating.”

24% indicated that deleting apps from their phone has made a positive impact on their lives.

Gad Maor, Storemaven: “I saw how I was drawn to pay attention to events I didn’t truly care about. My focus was being externally pulled towards things. In time, I understood that it was more than that and I turned off all app notifications on my phone.”

12% learned a lot from their hiring process.

Oren Buskila, Innoviz: “I've made more than one mistake with hiring people who were not the right fit and taking too long to realize it and act on it. I learned a couple of lessons: first, whenever possible, prefer internal promotion over hiring from the outside.”