Looking back to 2018 when we were less than 100 people, I wish that as a founder I had been more aware about the benefits of being small. When you’re small, you’re quick and your work is cohesive.
But when you’re small, you are also easily overwhelmed and aren’t taken seriously.
It’s good to try to learn from other companies, but in hind-sight, we wasted time trying to copy bigger company behaviours as if they would make us bigger. Things like using story points or doing user testing or implementing OKRs are what a bigger company has to do, but they’re not typically why that company is successful.
Now, when I look up to a big company, I feel glad that we’re smaller than them. “Glad we don’t have that problem”. I try to only learn what will make us think better about our own problems. I am much more concerned these days with getting more from less and staying as small as possible.