After scaling to 300 employees created more problems than it solved, Briq's founder now believes headcount is a poor measure of success. He argues that ARR per employee is the true "flex," promoting capital efficiency and focus over a bloated team size.

After nearly failing, OpenGov adopted a frugal culture and discovered it grew faster. Less spending reduces system noise and inefficiency. A leaner, more focused sales team, for instance, can become more motivated and effective, leading to better results.

OnlyFans achieves extreme capital efficiency by hiring only senior and junior talent, removing the "squidgy layer of middle management." This structure values individual contributors over managerial empire-building, ensuring everyone stays close to the business and makes decisions quickly, with a team of just 42 full-time employees.

Contradicting the common startup goal of scaling headcount, the founders now actively question how small they can keep their team. They see a direct link between adding people, increasing process, and slowing down, leveraging a small, elite team as a core part of their high-velocity strategy.

Founders often start scrappy out of necessity and dream of lavish resources. However, once successful, many realize that small, lean, and scrappy teams are more effective. This creates a paradox where the most successful entrepreneurs intentionally revert to the resource-constrained mindset they once tried to escape.

Gamma's CEO resists the pressure to scale headcount aggressively, arguing that doubling the team size does not guarantee double the speed. He believes a smaller, more agile team can change direction faster, which is more valuable than raw speed in a rapidly evolving market.

A unique dynamic in the AI era is that product-led traction can be so explosive that it surpasses a startup's capacity to hire. This creates a situation of forced capital efficiency where companies generate significant revenue before they can even build out large teams to spend it.

Drawing from experience at big tech, Surge AI's founder believes large organizations slow down top performers with distractions. By building a super-small, elite team, companies can achieve more with less overhead, a principle proven by Surge's own success.

Gamma scaled to a $2B valuation with only 50 people by innovating on org design, not just product. They prioritize hiring generalists over specialists and use a 'player-coach' model instead of a traditional management layer. This keeps the team lean, agile, and close to the actual work.