How to get more done with a smaller team
How to get more done with a smaller team
Issue 12
In the last few months, we’ve seen massive layoffs at tech companies.
Elon reportedly halved Twitter’s workforce. And just last week, Amazon announced 18,000 job cuts.
Why?
Because companies who invested in growth following the tech boom of 2020 are now having to cut back their teams to the bare essentials.
If you’re in middle management and not directly contributing to your company’s growth, your job is at risk.
This got me thinking about my experience working in larger companies versus smaller ones.
At Sendible, I had a team of 45+. At StoryPrompt, we’re a team of 2 — with no plans to grow headcount.
Here are 6 reasons I’ve chosen to stay small this time:
1. Faster innovation
The bigger the team, the harder it is to articulate a product vision and innovate. When you’re small, you can try things, learn, and iterate quickly.
2. Fewer voices
There is far less fear of failure when you’re small as there’s less at stake. Fewer voices need to be heard to move forward with speed.
3. Experiment-driven decision-making
When you’re small, decisions are made based on experiments. When you’re big, decisions are made based on data. I prefer looking at real feature adoption over words and numbers.
4. More focus
When you’re smaller, you’re forced to focus on one thing at a time. This gives you the bandwidth to go deep into a problem and innovate.
5. Bias towards product-led
Being small forces you to ensure your product is simple and intuitive to use so that you can scale with less. At Sendible, we had a large sales team. At StoryPrompt, the product sells itself.
6. Lower CAC
With a non-existent marketing team, it costs far less to acquire a customer. That means rather than paying salaries, more can be spent on ads and other acquisition channels.
Do you agree? Send me a quick reply. I’d love to hear from you.
Until next time,
— GH
P.S. I’m looking for guests to join me on my podcast. If you’re currently building or working in a startup, I’d love to chat with you 👉 Book yourself on as a guest.