It’s just about the people

A lot of people ask me how we built Appcelerator and how we were able to pull off the things we did. I can honestly say I don’t really fully know how things worked in the end.

What I can tell you this for certain. It’s just about the people.

Passionate people working toward a common goal create magic.

People — and a good variety and diversity of them — make ordinary things special. They take hard to do / impossible things and they make it possible. They just make it work in magically ways.

You need all kinds of people to make a startup work. Founders, investors, early employees, later employees, passionate followers and fans, partners and customers. As you grow, sometimes you need different people.

But somehow, when you put passionate people first and empower them: magic happens.

It doesn’t guarantee success. But I believe it tilts the curve in your favor. And life is just more interesting anyway.

So if you’re starting a new company or running an established one, just remember: take care of your people and they will help you take care of everything else that matters.

People first. It’s just about the people.

As I think about my next startup, all I can think about is how awesome it was working with so many great people and how I can’t wait to do it again (hopefully, over time, with a lot of them). Even though startups can be absolutely brutal (both physically, mentally and emotionally), doing it with people you genuinely care about and want to do “life” with just makes it all worth it.