As a data point, I've had 30+ years of working on projects where I wrote the whole product or I was responsible for a big portion. I did it by working for tiny

As a data point, I've had 30+ years of working on projects where I wrote the whole product or I was responsible for a big portion. I did it by working for tiny companies or a tiny teams and later as a consultant. For example; the last company I worked for as an employee had the boss, me and another developer. At another place, I consulted for a company that just couldn't get out of its own way. I was the software guy, my friend was the hardware guy and the 3rd guy did the mechanical engineering stuff. We were a small team but we could move fast.