Originally Posted here on ‘We Live To Build’
Big Challenges in growing from 1-10 people:
The biggest change is always communication and it’s the mindset that fundamentally has to change, or the company is dead.
Three friends sitting in a room working on a project do not need the think about how to communicate, it flows naturally and constantly.
A ten-person company is where the need for structured informational flow is necessary.
There are two main reasons:
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There is too much information.
At ten people the information and data start to be vast and not everyone needs (or wants) to know everything. At three people, it makes sense for everyone to know everything (and be CC’d into all communications). At 10 this would kill productivity. -
Naturally, though this does not happen and people tend to silo information – the right people do not get the right information. This also kills the business, in an early-stage startup, you can not have people waiting around for information or making decisions based on incomplete or inaccurate information.
This problem tends to stem from the CEO since the CEO will typically have a clear view of the whole organisation and therefore is responsible for ensuring that information flows to each the right people at the right point.
Their mindset needs to be that ‘without incredible communication, we will not make it’.
