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Targeting an efficient number of teammates is tricky because it's difficult to know and test when fewer people can achieve more. Too many constraints kill growt

by nbstme 5y ago

Targeting an efficient number of teammates is tricky because it's difficult to know and test when fewer people can achieve more. Too many constraints kill growth, and not too much also kill growth... A fact often ignored is that big startup success didn't raise a lot of money. Before their IPO, Shopify raised only $122.3M, Google raised $36.1M, Linkedin $103M, King $43M, Datadog $147M, Tableau $30M, and ServiceNow $83M. They all built massive businesses without a lot of cash infusion.

zebraflask 5y ago
I'm a little taken aback at 100M+ qualifying as "not a lot of cash" in comparison to, say, YC's usual funding level for brand new companies? I think it might be restating the obvious to say that a company pulling in 100M+ is no longer a startup, it's an established (even if relatively new) company in aggressive growth mode.
- jzoch 5y ago
  look at companies like dataminr or plenty - they have taken over a billion dollars in funding afaik. That level of cash is pretty rare for successful companies from what I see. 100M is a lot too though - i don't disagree.
- cipheredStones 5y ago
  Are you saying that raising $100M makes a company ipso facto no longer a startup, or that some transformation that makes it a startup has almost always happened by then? I joined my last company about a year before they raised a Series C that brought total funding to $95M, and I think that by almost any other definition it was a startup before and afterwards. (And it was enough of a startup to do a "hard pivot" to something largely unrelated when the pandemic destroyed its core business model, instead of shutting down.)
- askafriend 5y ago
  Competitive Senior Eng packages in this market are ~$350-500k (incl equity), and the fully loaded cost to hire is probably something closer to $1m per engineer. Yes $100M is a lot in absolute terms, but depending on what you're trying to achieve, how many people you need to achieve it, and what your timeline is, $100M might not be so crazy in context.
alisonkisk 5y ago

by nbstme 5y ago

zebraflask 5y ago

I'm a little taken aback at 100M+ qualifying as "not a lot of cash" in comparison to, say, YC's usual funding level for brand new companies? I think it might be restating the obvious to say that a company pulling in 100M+ is no longer a startup, it's an established (even if relatively new) company in aggressive growth mode.

jzoch 5y ago
look at companies like dataminr or plenty - they have taken over a billion dollars in funding afaik. That level of cash is pretty rare for successful companies from what I see. 100M is a lot too though - i don't disagree.
cipheredStones 5y ago
Are you saying that raising $100M makes a company ipso facto no longer a startup, or that some transformation that makes it a startup has almost always happened by then? I joined my last company about a year before they raised a Series C that brought total funding to $95M, and I think that by almost any other definition it was a startup before and afterwards. (And it was enough of a startup to do a "hard pivot" to something largely unrelated when the pandemic destroyed its core business model, instead of shutting down.)
askafriend 5y ago
Competitive Senior Eng packages in this market are ~$350-500k (incl equity), and the fully loaded cost to hire is probably something closer to $1m per engineer. Yes $100M is a lot in absolute terms, but depending on what you're trying to achieve, how many people you need to achieve it, and what your timeline is, $100M might not be so crazy in context.

alisonkisk 5y ago