You can scale revenue without growing the number of employees. That's precisely why product-based businesses, like SaaS and software in general, are famous. Ser

You can scale revenue without growing the number of employees. That's precisely why product-based businesses, like SaaS and software in general, are famous. Service-based businesses require scaling employees in order to scale revenue. In fact, if you keep employee growth in check, each employee makes even more money. Further, if you split profits, rather than forcing your employees to wait for the mythical IPO, they can use some of that money much earlier than if you grow employees, take on more investment, generate a huge overhang, give your employees low "startup" salaries, and then get aquahired with common equity getting zero return. In practice, it is far easier to get big payoffs for your employees if you keep the employee count small and aim for an early exit.