Startup life is a season, not a sprint
Standards beat perks. Systems beat hustle.
Entrepreneurship gets romanticized with the visible stuff. Beanbags. Cold brew. Flexible hours. Quirky job titles. None of that is the actual product.
The real product is outcomes: shipping, retention, revenue, trust, velocity, and resilience under pressure. And those outcomes are created by people, guided by standards, and repeated through systems.
Sports has been trying to teach us this forever.
A great example is Nick Saban’s coaching tree showing up in the NCAA College Football Playoffs. Different programs, different styles, different conferences, same root system.
Curt Cignetti (Indiana) Wide Receivers Coach and Recruiting Coordinator (2007–2010) at Alabama
Kirby Smart (Georgia) Assistant Head Coach and DB Coach (2007) and Defensive Coordinator (2008–2015) at Alabama
Dan Lanning (Oregon) Graduate Assistant (2015) at Alabama
Pete Golding (Ole Miss) Co-Defensive Coordinator and Inside Linebackers Coach (2018) and Defensive Coordinator and Inside Linebackers Coach (2019–2022) at Alabama
Mario Cristobal (Miami) Assistant Head Coach, Offensive Line Coach, and Recruiting Coordinator (2013–2016) at Alabama
This isn’t just trivia. It’s a blueprint for building companies that win.
The “coaching tree” is what startups call culture and talent density
In football, a coaching tree forms when a program consistently produces leaders who can take the same principles elsewhere and win in new environments. In startups, you see the same phenomenon:
Founders who produce future founders
Early leaders who become repeat operators
Teams that go on to build high-performing groups at other companies
Alumni networks that become talent pipelines and investor magnets
The core lesson: your environment produces people, and people reproduce environments.
If your company is truly great, it won’t just ship product. It will ship leaders.
What Saban got right that founders often miss
1) Standards are the culture, not vibes
Championship programs are not built on motivational speeches. They are built on what is tolerated and what is demanded, every day.
Startup translation:
Clear definition of “done”
High-quality decision making under constraints
Accountability that is fair and consistent
A bias toward fundamentals: customer pain, unit economics, reliability, clarity
Perks do not create performance. Standards do.
2) Process scales when charisma stops working
A founder’s charisma can carry a team from 0 to 1. It cannot carry them from 10 to 100. Winning programs win because their process survives personnel changes.
Startup translation:
Hiring rubrics that prevent “good talkers” from sneaking in
Operating cadence: weekly execution, metrics, retros
Playbooks for sales, onboarding, incident response, customer success
Training and feedback loops that compound
When you are tired, busy, and stressed, you do not rise to your goals. You fall to your systems.
3) Recruiting is strategy
Notice how multiple names in that coaching tree held roles tied to recruiting, development, or foundational execution (wide receivers, DBs, line, defensive systems). In elite programs, recruiting is not HR. It’s the game.
Startup translation:
Your hiring bar is your strategy
Your onboarding is your retention strategy
Your performance management is your speed strategy
Your leadership bench is your risk management
“People first” does not mean “people comfort”
Some founders hear “people first” and translate it into comfort-first. That’s how you end up with a nice office and mediocre results.
People first means:
Psychological safety and performance clarity
Candor without cruelty
High trust and high standards
Coaching that upgrades the team, not just manages it
A mission that makes the sacrifice feel worth it
People don’t join startups for stability. They join for growth, ownership, and impact. Respecting that means building an environment where their courage converts into results.
The leap of faith: what team members are really betting on
Joining an early-stage startup is like signing with a new program that promises a better future but has not won yet. The risk is real, and so is the opportunity.
If you want great people to take that leap, they are looking for evidence of three things:
Competence
Does leadership know what “good” looks like?Integrity
Do words match actions when things get hard?Trajectory
Is there a realistic path to winning, or just optimism?
Perks are not evidence. Execution is evidence.
The investor angle: your VCs are part of your team, not just your cap table
Here’s where the sports analogy gets even more useful. A great program does not just pick talented players. It picks people who fit the system, buy into the standard, and elevate the locker room.
Founders should evaluate investors the same way.
Pick investors like you pick coaches:
Do they develop teams, or just critique from the stands?
Do they stay calm in losing streaks, or create chaos?
Do they have pattern recognition that helps, or ego that distracts?
Do they open doors that matter for your stage, your market, your hiring needs?
Do they align with your time horizon, or push for shortcuts?
The wrong investor is like a coordinator who changes the playbook every week. You don’t just lose games. You lose trust, clarity, and momentum.
The right investor reinforces the standard, supports recruiting, and helps you build a program that outlasts a single season.
Build a company that produces winners elsewhere
Nick Saban’s coaching tree is a loud signal: the most valuable thing a program creates is not a trophy. It’s a repeatable way of winning, carried forward by people.
That is the most underrated startup goal too.
Yes, ship product.
Yes, chase revenue.
Yes, hit milestones.
But if you want something that lasts, build a company where:
People grow faster than they expected
Standards are clear and real
Leaders are developed, not just hired
Results speak louder than perks
Partners and investors strengthen the culture, not dilute it
Because in sports and startups, the scoreboard is honest.
And the best legacy is a tree.