Ask PG: Can co's afford the productivity loss that comes from a huge team?

1 point

12 years ago

In 2004 you wrote in "What the Bubble Got Right" (http://www.paulgraham.com/bubble.html)

"I think it's a big mistake for companies to loosen their belts as revenues increase. The question is not whether you can afford the extra salaries. Can you afford the loss in productivity that comes from making the company bigger?"

Many YC companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe and others seem to be hiring at a prodigious rate now that they have the cash available. They're still "small" next to Google or IBM.<p>What do you think now, looking back at the expansion of these YC companies, Google, Yahoo, etc.? Is it a mistake to build a huge team?