The second stage of fire building past initial starting flame is MUCH HARDER for us on the coast than getting initial flame. It is really hard to get a self sustaining fire going.
That is experience talking! I think it is true to a certain extent everywhere and is the most often overlooked aspect of firebuilding. I don't know what world the "tinder to kindling" people are living in, but I know I've never been there. It always takes me a much more gradual progression of fuels with ample attention paid to building a good base of one size of fuel before trying to ladder up to the next one. All the different tinders I have tried work pretty well but none of them have been magic bullets that allowed me to ignore the real work of getting a fire to the self sustaining point.
For initial fire lighting, I carry 2" squares of bicycle inner tube. A single square will usually burn for about 3 minutes. That lets me carry a whole bunch of "starts" in a really compact and non-messy package. For backup, I carry trioxane. It's been a while since I've seen trioxane that wouldn't light as TAK mentions but I have seen it.
