It’s dumb to want to get rich unnecessarily hard (‘overpaying’ in effort for the actual outcome).

Somewhere in the middle is a good trade off. A big part of being a founder is finding the right people to contribute to make it a success.

There are a lot of freeloader/non-effective types, everywhere.

Big corp and gov’t often has no choice but to accept them, but not so for startups.

The founders ultimately are responsible for who they hire and what they produce.

Agreed that success such as yours is not only luck!

But as a co-founder of a SaaS company that has survived over a decade, I would stress that luck* is also part of it.

Many people work very hard at a startup and the thing just crashes and burns, sometimes very quickly. It's not just hard work and being competent at your job - other things outside of your control or influence have to happen to align, too.

* I think "luck" is a pretty good descriptive word for things outside of your control and influence going your way.