> Reflecting on it now, I see a lot of ego and pride reflected in that team size number.
This is one of the worse diseases I see in the tech world. I have friends who, when asked how their company is doing, respond with something like "great! We just hired a dozen more engineers."
I'm pretty sure a better answer is "great! We just got X customers," or "great! We're profitable now!". Not how big your fief is. (But, mentioning fiefs, I'm struck by the notion that a startup is just a business unit of a loosely-organized corporation and CxOs thereof just middle managers for an investor-class executive group.)
This is one of the worse diseases I see in the tech world. I have friends who, when asked how their company is doing, respond with something like "great! We just hired a dozen more engineers."
I'm pretty sure a better answer is "great! We just got X customers," or "great! We're profitable now!". Not how big your fief is. (But, mentioning fiefs, I'm struck by the notion that a startup is just a business unit of a loosely-organized corporation and CxOs thereof just middle managers for an investor-class executive group.)