In a world that often equates scale with success, Anders Jones, CEO at Facet, offers a refreshing counterpoint: leaner might just mean faster, sharper, and stronger. In our recent Wisdom From Wizards conversation — a 2-minute video series brought to you by Caribou Strategic, helping tech scaleups stand out and succeed — we explored a simple but provocative question:

“Would you rather keep a small, tight-knit team or scale fast and build a larger organization?”

Without hesitation, Anders leaned into the first option.

“For sure, a small, tight-knit team,” he said. “The more people you have, the more complexity — and frankly, the harder it is to get things done.”

Coming from someone who’s led through both big-team and small-team phases, that insight isn’t just theoretical. Anders has lived the pendulum swing. At Facet, he’s experienced the operational drag that can come with size — and the agility that emerges when a team is lean, aligned, and focused.

But this isn’t just a management philosophy. It’s a strategic stance shaped by something deeper: the rise of AI as a force multiplier.

“Companies are going to be able to accomplish far more with far fewer people,” Anders explained. “You’re already seeing startups with two or three people scaling to tens of millions in ARR. That’s just the beginning of a massive trend.”

He’s not wrong. If the last decade was about blitzscaling, the next one may reward those who master lean scaling — where tools outperform titles, and where alignment beats armies.

What This Means for Tech CEOs

If you’re a CEO navigating the tension between growth and complexity, Anders’ take is worth sitting with. The tradeoff between team size and execution speed is shifting, and AI is redrawing the rules. Hiring might still matter — but who you hire and how you empower them with tools may matter more than ever.

Here are a few reflections CEOs can take away:

• Reevaluate org design: Are you building a team for scale or for speed?
• Rethink your AI stack: What workflows could be radically compressed by automation or copilots?
• Realign incentives: Smaller teams require greater clarity and ownership. Is your culture built to support that?

Anders’ view is clear: The future belongs to focused teams armed with powerful tools.

Wisdom From Wizards is a bite-sized video series featuring critical decisions from the sharpest minds in tech. It’s brought to you by Caribou Strategic, where we help tech scaleups stand out and succeed through positioning, go-to-market clarity, and CEO-level strategy.

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