Notes on running a small team
What we've learned about focus, pricing and saying no — from the first year of The Founders.
A small team is a strange thing. You have the freedom of a big company and the constraints of a two-person crew, and you have to be honest about which one you’re actually operating under.
Here are a few things that have held up so far.
Say no early, and often
Every “yes” is a promise about your future calendar. We now ask a simple question before committing to anything: does this move the one thing we’re building forward? If not, it’s a no — politely, and without a long explanation.
Price for the work, not the hope
We used to underprice to win trust. It backfired: the clients who accepted the low price were the hardest to serve. Pricing at what the work is worth filters for the right collaborators.
Keep the stack boring
We ship on a small, well-understood stack. It’s not exciting to talk about, but it means we can reason about everything, and we can be fast without a large team.
The meta-lesson: a small team’s real product is its attention. Spend it like it’s the scarce resource it is.