Khalid Halim [Archive.org URL]

I started noticing patterns in startups — which I’ve validated with executives and VCs over the years — that how companies scale and break matches military groupings. So, the most efficient group in the military is a group of three, then a group of eight, and then three groups of eight, so 24. Look across companies and you’ll see that around 24 people, someone speaks up to say, “We need a manager.” If a startup makes it to 48 people, the next break is often in HR. And so on. As they scale, companies have more predictable breaking points.

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