Build Beyond Yourself

— SEPTEMBER 27TH, 2026 —

BUILD BEYOND YOURSELF

This week, the Ninety team is together for our Annual Summit. It’s the one time each year we bring the whole company together in person to reconnect, reflect on what we’ve built, and look at where we’re headed.

Having the whole company together gets me thinking about what we’re building beyond the tasks we do every day. Companies are built in meetings, decisions, customer conversations, and countless ordinary days. But as time goes on, those days also accumulate stories, rituals, relationships, and ways of working that become part of the identity. Around here, all it takes is someone mentioning “cowbell” to bring one of those stories back.

Those stories and rituals may seem small, but they become part of the culture people remember and pass along. That’s had me thinking about what lasts once the founder is no longer at the center of everything. I recently sat down with Sara Stern, a family business expert who asked me a question I haven’t been able to shake: What tree are you planting today that you will never sit under?

That’s the long game. As founders, we have to care about the future and build a company that isn’t dependent on our constant involvement to remain resilient. That means protecting the parts of your culture worth carrying forward, holding people to a shared standard, and developing leaders who can make good decisions when you’re not in the room.

If you stepped away years from now, what would you hope your people still understood, protected, and passed along?

PERSPECTIVES

“Even when Amazon was a tiny company, for whatever reason, I always had in my mind that I wanted to build a company that would outlast me."

— Jeff Bezos

MARK MY WORDS

One of the harder parts of building a company is knowing when you’re too involved in the details of how it runs.

When you’re first getting started, that involvement is necessary. You know the customers, make most of the decisions, and hold years of context in your head that no one else has access to.

But if you want your company to outlast you, that knowledge can’t only stay with you.

Your leadership team needs to understand why you make certain decisions, which standards aren’t negotiable, and where they have the authority to make the call themselves. That takes more than delegation. It takes repetition, trust, and a shared understanding of how the company works.

I think that’s part of playing this long and infinite game. You’re building a company that can keep making good decisions years from now, even when you’re no longer involved in every one of them.

TUNE IN

Founder’s Framework Podcast
I’ve been spending more time lately talking with people who helped shape Ninety and the way I think about building companies.

A few recent episodes:

[Listen Now]

ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD

In case you missed it, here’s more from Founder’s Framework:

Creators vs. Reactors: How Great Founders Build for the Future

A decision can look like it’s based on what your company needs now, when it’s really being shaped by an experience you had years ago.

In this article, I break down Creator Mode and Reactor Mode, and how those patterns can affect the decisions we make as founders.

[Read Now]

Building something that lasts means knowing it won’t always be yours to lead.

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