Last fall, I attended a dinner for the AI startup Infactory where I met founder Brooke Hartley . From our first conversation, she seemed to have a vision to help the media industry navigate AI. And she posted on LinkedIn about how she was building a legacy for her son. It was a vision I was so inspired by that I pursued Hartley, asked to work with her and eventually joined Infactory as a strategic advisor.

Several months later, a friend asked me to advise another AI startup. “Anything for you,” I said to my friend because she too is so driven by vision. But then when I met the founder she was working for, I knew immediately I could not work for someone who lacked a vision. I turned down the company. I just didn’t see that the founder had a clear long-term plan beyond making money.

As the consolidation of smaller AI companies already begins, regardless of how inexpensive it can be to start a business now, it’s already becoming clear which AI startups may or may not survive. While Hartley recently joined Coval, I still believe in her vision and determination. In my reporting for Forbes and my advisory work, it seems that to compete with such massive AI companies like Anthropic, it takes an exceptional commitment to an idea to keep going.

It’s something that Amy Buechler has seen in her work as in-house therapist to Y Combinator from 2015 through 2019 where she coached nearly 800 early stage founders. In the past six years of running her private practice called Scale Yourself , she has coached nearly 1,000 founders and has come back to the same conclusion. No founder can really compete against a founder driven by a strong vision.

“When a founder is connected to their vision, it means that you’ll never be able to outsmart them and you’ll never be able to outlast them," aid Buechler. “Because they are completely fueled by their own unique sense of what is best for the world, that incredible possibility and pure potential.”

The Inevitability of Vision

Buechler said that founders with vision partly view what they are doing as “inevitable”. Their vision must happen. She has worked with clients who want to create global safety nets for people regardless of their citizenship, electrify the African continent and increase connectivity for everyone around the world. Nothing can hold them back from their purpose.

“Vision is the way our psychology perceives possibility, is that when we have a vision, we know, we sense that it's inevitable. That's our perception. This will happen. This will be the one incredible thing I can imagine myself doing for the world. It's inevitable and we know that it is,” said Buechler. “Money-driven founders have a short-term goal. But the goal is uncertain. It's not inevitable in the same way that achieving your vision is.”

Buechler stressed that while making money is often part of the plan, it typically is not enough to drive a business.

“Making money is not a vision and those people will, many of them will make money and that’s fine,” said Buechler. “But if they’re in a competition with a founder who is fueled by their vision, they will probably make more money. They will have a greater impact. They will build companies and products that are enduring in the long term.”

She has found that founders who just focus on money burn out faster.

“They usually exit exhausted and empty because they are not fueled by purpose,” she said.

This sense of vision came up immediately when I met with Marie Schneegens , cofounder of GloGlo which makes gummies that help diabetics with sugar lows. She and her co-founder Michael Fester already have experience building successful AI startups. But their vision to help diabetics felt more important to them. Since they launched their business in March, they have raised $3 million.

“The more you care about what you do, the biggest impact you can have,” said Schneegans. “That was very important. To every day wake up and do something that we care about. How can we help the diabetic community feel better every day?”

It’s easy to spot founders with vision. When I was moderating a panel at NYC Tech Week in June, I met Manissa Montour , founder of Loune, a women’s wellness app. Montour spoke after our panel and her passion was infectious. I could not leave the event without introducing myself and asking to hear more about her story.

Montour’s last digital fitness startup called NissaFit generated $1.2 million in eight years. In November 2025, she started building her new AI startup to help customers most businesses are missing: women of color, women struggling with diet issues and women with PCOS. She is building an app that helps them all this by the year’s end. While the deadline is fast approaching, Montour keeps working away.

“Being a founder, entrepreneur it can be so tough and you want to give up," she said. “When it’s bigger than money, it’s a lot harder to give in.”

But it was very clear when we spoke that her vision will get her there.

“I want to save lives,” said Montour. “I want to see women live long, fulfilling lives. It’s so much bigger than money. I don’t need a billion dollars to be happy. My legacy is to be of service and help women. That’s why I’m here. As long as I am doing that, I am living a fulfilling life.”