Written and read by John-Miguel Mitchell
What the NBA’s most consistent coach can teach startups about culture, leadership, and long-term success.
Gregg Popovich is stepping away after nearly 30 years with the San Antonio Spurs. He retires with five NBA championships, more than 1,300 wins, and the respect of nearly every player and coach in the game.
But here’s the thing: the Spurs were never cool.
They weren’t flashy. They weren’t loud. They didn’t have drama. They didn’t dominate headlines. For most of their run, they were—by NBA standards—boring.
And maybe that’s exactly the kind of leadership startup founders should emulate.
From San Antonio to Startupland: Small Can Be Legendary
Popovich didn’t have the advantages of big-market teams like New York or L.A. He built his team in San Antonio—a small-market team most people ignored until they couldn’t.
No celebrity endorsements. No massive media footprint. Sound familiar?
Many startups don’t have the luxury of unlimited funding or a Silicon Valley zip code. That’s the startup grind.
You’re not launching from a Google-backed incubator. You’re building from a coworking space in Cincinnati, Austin, Montreal, or Manila. And just like Pop, you don’t have time to fake it. You have to build it.
Boring Wins Championships
While other teams chased highlight reels and media hype, the Spurs quietly focused on fundamentals: team defense, ball movement, player development, and trust. Their best player, Tim Duncan, once described as “a bank shot in human form,” wasn’t a headline-grabber—he just showed up, did the work, and elevated everyone around him.
Startups often chase the opposite: viral growth, bold proclamations, cult-of-personality CEOs. But Popovich’s Spurs remind us that sustainable success often looks… uneventful.
No drama. No chaos. Just excellence, on repeat.
The lesson for founders? Your company doesn’t need to be a spectacle. It needs to be consistent. It doesn’t need to “move fast and break things” as they old saying in startupland goes.
Instead, here’s what founders need to hear:
“Boring” isn’t the enemy. In startups, boring is elite.
- Boring is hiring people you don’t need to manage.
- Boring is consistent team cadence and zero-surprise standups.
- Boring is not pivoting every time your investors get nervous.
Startups often build the opposite:
- Culture that shifts with each funding round.
- Teams that rely too heavily on the founder’s mood.
- Values that are aspirational instead of operational.
At Ekipo, we call this Leadership Inconsistency & Culture Drift—and it’s one of the biggest reasons early-stage companies lose momentum.
If your company needs a “reset” every six months, you don’t have a culture. You have a vibe. And vibes don’t scale.
The Quiet Power of Boring Startups
The startup world loves hype—TechCrunch headlines, billion-dollar valuations, Twitter threads. But some of the most enduring startups are the ones you don’t hear about until they’ve already quietly taken over their markets. Just like the Spurs.
Take a look at these companies:
- Zapier – Quietly powers millions of automations behind the scenes. No major VC funding. Fully remote. Hugely profitable.
- Mailchimp – A bootstrapped email company that became a $12B acquisition without ever chasing a “move fast and break things” mindset.
- Basecamp – Famously opinionated about not growing for growth’s sake. Built around calm work and sustainable pace.
- Calendly – Scheduling tool that just works. It didn’t need to be flashy to become essential to millions of professionals.
- Canva – Design made simple. Grew methodically, avoided Silicon Valley noise, and is now a $40B+ global platform.
These companies are the Spurs of SaaS: steady, disciplined, team-first. They prioritized durability over buzz—and it worked.
What Startups Can Learn from the Spurs System
“Pops” culture didn’t need reinvention. It didn’t crack under pressure. It scaled because it was designed to.
Founders who want to win right now should be asking:
- Is my leadership style consistent?
- Are my values actually shaping how we hire, work, and communicate?
- Is our culture strong enough to survive growth—or just good times?
Too often, startups rely on personality and momentum. But like Popovich’s teams, the ones that last are built on structure, trust, and intentional systems.
Founders who want to win for the long-term should be asking:
What would a “Spurs system” look like inside our company?
If you can’t answer that, you’re already bleeding trust.
Startups Could Use a Bit More Spurs DNA
In a world obsessed with speed and scale, Popovich went deep: deep on development, deep on trust, deep on values. His teams aged well. His players stayed loyal. His assistants became head coaches. His system endured.
Too many startups burn bright and flame out because their internal culture is duct-taped together in the name of growth. Popovich’s Spurs prove: you can grow AND have discipline. You can win AND be humble. You can lead AND be boring.
Gregg Popovich just walked away from the game with his legacy intact. No farewell tour, no over-the-top exit. Just decades of excellence, built quietly.
Popovich didn’t disrupt the NBA—he outlasted it.
Founders chasing the next headline might want to sit with that.
The Bottom Line: Why Founders Should Get a Little More Boring
- Consistency scales. Hype doesn’t.
- A well-run system is more valuable than a charismatic leader.
- Being underrated might be your secret weapon.
- Quiet cultures often outlast loud ones.
Questions for Founders:
- Is your startup built to impress TechCrunch—or to actually endure?
- Do you chase dopamine or discipline?
- What would it look like to become boring in the name of greatness?
- For VCs, are you funding sizzle or substance?
Article was written by John-Miguel Mitchell who is the Founder and Lead Consultant at Ekipo LLC. If you’d like to learn more about how to design and build out the ideal workplace culture for your business, email him at jmitchell@joinekipo.com.
Liked the blog? Get new content delivered directly to your inbox every Thursday.
Ekipo 