On The Ground: What Europe's Scale-Up Advisors are looking for in 2026

Behind every successful startup is a slew of advisors who helped them navigate the treacherous waters of innovation and creation. At Highland Europe, we know how useful these connections are and pride ourselves on one of the most robust and impactful advisor networks in the industry. As we roll into 2026, we took a moment to interview some of our best leaders to get their thoughts on how the year ahead will shape up. Here are the thoughts they shared on what to look out for in 2026. 

Looking at the year just gone, several key themes from 2025 emerged across their work with different companies, but every single advisor, regardless of function, identified AI as a defining trend of 2025. With a frothy market, there is a focus on sustainable growth, with the definitive end of “growth at all costs,” mentality perhaps the most significant shift in the past years. With the New Year in full swing, this is what our advisors are looking at in 2026:

• Advisors noted that even the most widely accepted metrics, like the “Rule of 40” (where the combined annual growth figure and profit margin should be above 40%), will continue to diminish in importance.
• Others anticipate “there is a bigger focus on EBITDA than pure revenue this year.”

• “2025 seemed to be a year of divergence for companies. Companies with a [credible] AI story saw tons of momentum with regard to growth and pipe gen, while others got pushed down the priority list for prospects’ budgets and focus.”
• “The backlash and bubble deflation is coming. When and how hard is anyone’s guess. Customers are moving from investing in AI experimentation to getting discipline around ROI. Companies will need to have the right combination of message, product, and proof of value to succeed.”

• “AI is levelling the field for everyone. It feels like a new race with everyone starting at the same position. Everyone is faced with the question of how to leverage AI to improve a product, while making sure not to get overtaken by someone else – worst case by total surprise.”
• “The emergence of AI 2.0 companies like Loveable, N8N who founded post Foundation Model creation” is also viewed as “a new challenge or concern that wasn’t on the radar in previous years”

• “We all knew it was coming, but the shift from traditional organic search to LLMs came even more rapidly than people were predicting. GEO is now a top-concern for demand gen teams.”
• “A common theme seems to be the slow death of traditional digital marketing tactics (PPC, etc). Cost per lead continues to increase, with quality and conversions declining.”

• A practice highlighted as becoming less important in 2026 is “Scaling fast (hiring a lot of people), CEO’s are more cautious with their growth plans and want to see where AI tools can deliver multiples on employee productivity”

• “AI hires into businesses haven’t necessarily made the monumental cost savings we expected.”
• “It is very hard to see where the puck is going. The rate of change is super high but no one knows when things will slow down. So both in terms of envisioning the product, or moving more engineering work to AI and assuming any technical debt accumulated by this will not be an issue in the future carries a risk. My advice is to play out multiple scenarios and see how various assumptions may play out in the worst/best cases.” 
• “Think about how to use AI within your organisation (beyond Engineering, CS or Product) and start thinking about an organization where AI agents are an integrated part of the workforce.”
• From Product, People and HR advisors, guidance for 2026 focused on the “major staffing implications of Gen AI”

• “Have a simple enough plan for 2026, so you know by the end of Q1 where the plan is working and where not. That leaves you with 3 quarters time to course correct where needed.”
• “Adopt AI and have a plan B in place in case the geopolitical environment suddenly evolves in a negative way.” 
• “Don’t expand your target market too early. Superserve your market with the leading product, delay horizontal scale as long as possible.”

Despite the challenges, there’s an underlying current of optimism from advisors. Companies with strong fundamentals, clear focus, and the ability to adapt are well-positioned. The fall of “growth at all costs” and the return to disciplined execution may actually advantage European companies that have always been more capital-efficient than their Silicon Valley peers. As one advised, “Invest in supporting your own sustainable growth.” This encapsulates the opportunity of building companies that will endure, not just companies that scale too quickly and burn themselves out.

The challenges ahead are significant, but they’re also opportunities for well-positioned companies to pull ahead. Here’s to making 2026 the year of building on strong fundamentals.