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There is little cannon information about the founders other than that they were the most powerful witches and wizards in their era. JK has said that she wanted to represent the different parts of the UK and Ireland. When thinking about what kind of life that they would've lead to personify the values of their house, I fudged their nationalities a bit but honestly this is what makes the most sense to me. In order to make sure my information was good I did some research on the 10th century to make sure I was at least in the right ballpark in the timeline. The 10th century in Europe was both solidly in the dark ages and also the foundational era that cultural groups we know today originate from. For wizards, I believe this was a time of heavy migration due to the spread of christianity and widespread violence from muggle threats. Events that would lead four talented individuals to try to create a way to protect children and gather scattered populations. While Scotland was not immune to these changes, it would've been distant and isolated. Ideal for hiding. According to the wiki, Hogsmeade was founded before the school, about 80 years in fact.
Godric Gryffindor: Celtic from Northern England
A strapping red headed boy born to a middle class family. At this time in the middle ages, the middle class took the form of either merchants or educated bureaucrats. When it came to wizards, this often meant using land to produce magical crops or making goods with magic and selling them. In the case of Godric’s family, they were skilled magical craftsmen. They specialized in making household goods such as cauldrons or metal tools. They used a combination of smithing and rune crafting in their work.
Godric was the third son of the family and had little chance of inheriting the family forge. His parents taught him as much as they could but primarily focused on training his brothers' as apprentices. This left him free time to train with every weapon he could get his hand on. The neglect of his family fostered a sense of independence from an early age and also led him to exploring the world on his own. His career options were few, he could marry the daughter of a family with no sons of their own and take over their business, or strike out on his own in search of glory. Obviously he decided on the second from an early age. His parents did not approve of his choices but knew he wanted more than what they had to offer.
When Godric was fourteen, he struck up a contract with a knight who was a client of his parents to become a squire. After the fall of Rome, Albion was increasingly facing invasion from other groups. The area Godric grew up in was largely hidden from muggles but the wizard’s were not entirely protected from the violence. Wizarding knights commingled with muggle ones during this time. His initial magical and physical foundations were strong enough he advanced quickly. At the age of twenty he was on the verge of being granted a knighthood, but his hot headed nature got the better of him and he barely escaped imprisonment. Instead he was run out of his lord’s land and began to wander. He scraped by for a while doing freelance rune work but eventually became a pseudo mercenary due to his weaponry talents and combat magic skills. In his travels he saw how vulnerable wizards truly were. He had a safe childhood and loving parents but the heavy conflict of this time period meant that wasn't true for many. Unlike his privileged family and the honorable knights, many were persecuted and killed. He saved as many as he could but without safe places to stay he was just prolonging their suffering.
Muggleborns had the hardest lot in his opinion. They were often killed early on or abandoned to starve. His refusal to abandon them placed him in many dangerous situations and led him to be known as Godric the Red Lion. His original last name was Whitesmith (referring to the metals his family worked with) but dropped his family name to protect them from the repercussions of his choices.
Godric met Salazar while he was smuggling a family through a forest. Both men are lone wolves by nature but became the best of friends after Godric recruited Salazar to his cause of protecting other magicals. Godric’s skills laid in fighting skills and protective nature but his brashness didn’t lend itself to stealth missions. Salazar’s more flexible morals made it easier to bribe officials and complete some of the more underhanded tasks involved in evading authorities. This continued on until they encountered Rowena and Helga. The pairs had gained reputations for similar demonstrations of power and shared a common goal of saving magicals, especially children without a place to go. They each had contacts in different communities scattered across the isles and after the Viking and Danish invasions around 980 they decided to create their haven north of Hadrian’s wall. Some refugees had already had this idea and settled in an isolated valley. The founders approached this tiny community of refugees about building their school nearby. This allowed them to have some human contact outside of the four of them and had an inn for them to live in while they worked. Businesses had been established to meet the needs of the growing population and over time the refugee camp evolved into Hogsmead.
Godric was thrilled upon arriving to see that there was a pub already established so that he could relax after a long day of carving runes into stone. When he went in to check out the pub he was bashed over the head with a barrel. The witch behind the bar had recognized him from one of his many adventures. Unfortunately this adventure involved Salazar betting on the wrong hippogriffs one too many times and the pair skipping out on their bar tab. After recovering from the blow he calmly explained to the barmaid (flirting) that he would of course pay (after buying her breakfast in the morning). Needless to say that when he made it back to the castle a few hours later he had a black eye, four broken bones and was head over heels for her. They married and had two sons. One of whom originated the Potter line and the other (who married one of Helga's brood) established the Longbottom line. Both families started out with the Gryffindor name but it changed through the generations.
Once the school was established people began to flock to it because it was seen as a sanctuary for magicals. As a professor, he taught defense, runes, dark arts, combat, and muggle studies/street smarts.