Alumni Stories: Building a company isn't about always being right. It's about never stopping learning.

Many people believe successful entrepreneurs start with the perfect plan.

Reality looks quite different. For Ola Stål and the team behind Substly, the journey began with a clear conviction. They had built a platform that helps businesses gain control over their growing SaaS environments, reduce unnecessary costs and strengthen security. Customers saw the value. Yet sales moved more slowly than expected. It would have been easy to keep pushing in the same direction. Instead, they did something much harder. They asked themselves a simple question: Were we trying to solve the problem in the wrong way?

The answer led to a strategic shift. Instead of selling directly to end customers, Substly started partnering with IT service providers, organisations that had already earned their customers' trust and worked closely with them every day.

Suddenly, everything clicked into place. What had once been a long and challenging sales process became a model where customers, partners and Substly all created value together.

It is a great reminder that entrepreneurship is just as much about developing your mindset as it is about developing your product. Perhaps the biggest lesson from Ola's journey is that success does not always come from working harder. Sometimes it comes from having the courage to challenge your assumptions and discover a better path forward.

At Founders Loft, we meet entrepreneurs with bold ideas every day.

The founders who build lasting companies are often those who are willing to listen, experiment, learn from failure and adjust their course along the way. They do not see setbacks as failures, but as an essential part of building something that truly works. That is the kind of entrepreneurship we want to celebrate. Because creating meaningful change is not about always having the right answers. It is about having the courage to keep learning.

Alumni Stories

Founder: Ola Stål

Company: Substly

Focus: SaaS Management | IT Security | B2B SaaS

Solves: Helping businesses and IT partners gain control of their SaaS environments, reduce security risks and make smarter decisions about their digital tools.

Key takeaway: "A product is never better than its distribution. And sometimes, you have to get it wrong before you can get it right."

Founders Loft Alumni since: 2023