There are many people who go to school (or have an interest in) “business”, with the goal of building and running one. That education is about the structures of how to build/run a business, like legal structures, financing, building a culture, leadership, process building, finding a market, etc. All of those things are actual skills, and things people can be really good at, even if they don’t have an idea for a specific product or service. For those people, the company structure is the passion, and finding a product to sell is just part of the process.

People who have a passion for something can also build a business, and this is who you may be thinking of, and also this is the type that’s often glorified in the tech space. But many passionate founders are quickly hampered by the reality of having to build the company structures instead of being able to focus on the actual passion/product.

This is why many VCs prefer teams of founders instead of a sole one, as they can divide and focus on these separate areas. The idea of a sole passionate founder who grinds away in their garage is more of a “chosen one” trope than a common reality.