People, not products, make a great startup

There’s a pattern we’ve seen again and again when looking back at the startups who’ve grown the most: they weren’t really about the product. They were about the people.

That sounds like a cliché. But like most clichés, it became one because it’s true.

The strange thing is how often we forget this in the moment. When a founder pitches their idea, the natural instinct is to focus on the product.

Is it new? Does it solve a real problem? Is it better than the alternatives? These are good questions. But they’re not the most important ones. What matters more is who is building it.

Because in almost every successful company, the early product was barely recognisable compared to what it later became.

Founders pivoted. They adjusted. Sometimes they threw everything out and started again. But what stayed constant – the only thing that mattered, really – was the team.

The winding path to startup success

Startups almost never go in a straight line. There’s a myth that successful founders had a clear vision from day one, built exactly that, and succeeded.

But that’s not how it usually works.

The real story is more like this: the founders start with a rough idea. They build something. It sort of works, but not really. So they tweak it. That helps a little.

Then they try a different feature, a new use case, maybe even a different audience. Sometimes they realise the product is solving a completely different problem than the one they set out to solve.

This back-and-forth process is normal. In fact, it’s necessary. The market doesn’t stand still. Customers are unpredictable. Competitors lurch forward from the darkness.

The best founders don’t resist this – they embrace it. They keep testing, learning, and adjusting until they hit on something that works. Something people really want.

That’s what people mean by “product-market fit.” It’s not a moment of divine insight. It’s more like stumbling into a clearing after hacking your way through a dense forest.

And the people who make it to that clearing – the ones who get to product-market fit – aren’t always the ones who started with the best idea.

They’re the ones who were persistent enough to keep going when it got hard. Who were analytical enough to see what was and wasn’t working. Who were passionate enough to keep caring when no one else did.

Three traits of great startup founders

These three traits – passion, analysis, and persistence – are some of the core ingredients of great founders.

Passion keeps them going when it doesn’t make sense to. When there’s no funding, no users, and no obvious reason to keep trying. Passion means they care more about the problem than about looking smart. It means they’re obsessed – not with their own brilliance, but with solving something that matters.

Analysis means they’re always trying to learn. They measure what’s working, they test their assumptions, and they’re not afraid to admit when they’re wrong. It doesn’t mean they always have the right answer. But it means they’re always looking for it.

Persistence is what ties it all together. Startups are hard. Most people give up too soon. Great founders don’t. They keep going. Even when they have to change direction. Even when it hurts.

When we look back at the companies that succeeded, those three traits show up over and over. The founders didn’t necessarily have the best idea at the start. But they had the right mindset. And that turned out to be much more important.

Even great startups begin with bad ideas

If you look at the early versions of great startups, they’re often almost laughably bad.

Instagram started as a check-in app called Burbn. Slack was born out of a failed game. Shopify was a snowboard store.

In each case, the product that made them famous came later. What made the difference wasn’t the original idea or even the problem. It was the people building it.

They paid attention to what was working. They noticed what users were doing – even when it wasn’t what they expected. And they were willing to throw away months (or years) of work to chase something better.

That kind of courage is rare. Most people are too attached to their original vision. But the best founders don’t see that as failure. They see it as progress.

Final thoughts

So if you’re building a startup, remember this: your idea is just the starting point. What matters more is how you work, how you learn, and how you adapt.

Will you keep going when others quit? Will you learn faster than anyone else? Will you care more than anyone else? Because in the long run, it’s not the product that wins. It’s the people behind it.

That’s why, at Stone & Chalk, we don’t look for perfect ideas. We look for people with the mindset to build, break, and rebuild again. People with the courage to change their minds, and the grit to keep going when it would be easier to stop.

We’re not for everyone. But if you’re the kind of founder who thrives on feedback, who isn’t afraid to start ugly, and who’s determined to build something real – then we might just be for you. So join us, we’d love to hear what you’re working on.