Merchant banks consciously limit their size and reject rigid corporate structures to maintain flexibility. This is a core competitive strategy against larger, slower institutions. Decisions are made through quiet, direct conversations between principals, not through committees or formal channels, enabling them to move with unparalleled speed and agility.

Despite massive growth, Apollo preserves its culture by having senior partners work physically among the teams, not on an executive floor. This proximity encourages "casual collisions" in common areas, ensuring cultural values and open communication are maintained during rapid scaling.

The firm avoids the pitfalls of scale by organizing into small, autonomous investment groups (e.g., crypto, infra). This design, inspired by early Hewlett-Packard, provides the speed of a small team with the power of a large institution's brand and capital.

To maintain an "ownership culture" in a large public company, leaders must treat key employees like partners. This means floating ideas, gathering reactions, adjusting plans, and sometimes postponing actions—a slower, more collaborative process than a typical top-down corporate hierarchy.

Contrary to the popular bottoms-up startup ethos, a top-down approach is crucial for speed in a large organization. It prevents fragmentation that arises from hundreds of teams pursuing separate initiatives, aligning everyone towards unified missions for faster, more coherent progress.

To balance agility and scale, Jamie Dimon structures teams like Navy SEALs. Small, dedicated groups are fully authorized to complete a mission, preventing bureaucratic drag. However, they use common equipment and platforms, avoiding the chaos of total decentralization.

The rise of JP Morgan under Jamie Dimon wasn't just about vision, but the intense operational work of integrating a "conglomerate of institutions" from previous, incomplete mergers like Chase and Bank One. This disciplined execution was the real key to its success.

To maintain agility while scaling, A16Z models itself after the original Hewlett-Packard, operating as a series of small, autonomous groups (e.g., crypto, infra). This structure blends the power and resources of a large organization with the speed and ownership of a small one.

To avoid bureaucratic bloat, organize the company into small, self-sufficient "pods" of no more than 10 people. Each pod owns a specific problem and includes all necessary roles. Performance is judged solely on the pod's impact, mimicking an early-stage startup's focus.