At around 40 people, something changes. The founders still know everyone's name, but they no longer know what everyone is working on. Decisions that used to take a Slack message now take a meeting - and then another one.

Why it happens

Informal coordination scales to roughly the size of a dinner party. Past that, the number of relationships grows faster than anyone can keep up with, and the founders become the bottleneck for every cross-team decision.

The fix is not more process. It is fewer, clearer decisions - written down, owned by someone other than the founder.

The four changes that work

1. Name a leadership team, even if it is small. 2. Write a one-page plan for the quarter. 3. Install a weekly operating review with real metrics. 4. Give every priority a single owner who is not a founder.

The bottom line

Every company hits the wall. The ones that get through quickly treat it as a design problem, not a people problem.