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I think from a founder's mentality it is 100% true that more people = more problems, not more success. However, from a consumer mentality, more employees means
by allenp 16y ago
I think from a founder's mentality it is 100% true that more people = more problems, not more success.
However, from a consumer mentality, more employees means (potentially) more revenue and stability, but it all depends on the industry. I probably wouldn't buy an airplane from a two man shop, but wouldn't blink at going to a dentist with only two employees.
The problem comes when the founder starts looking at things from the consumer perspective and wants to use headcount for appearances or marketing.
- justin 16y agoA two man shop probably can't actually make an airplane. Industries where there are high headcount requirements usually stem from some underlying reason (like, it actually takes around that many people to produce and support the product). Even still, if you are in one of those industries you should strive to keep your headcount as low as possible (where that means you have orders of magnitude more people than your typical web startup).
- d4rt 16y agoInfuriatingly, it's not clear whether Burt Rutan built and designed his early planes by himself from the Wikipedia articles. I may have bought into a mythical view of Burt, but I would definitely believe that Burt Rutan could build an aeroplane with 2 people.