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I remember there were six of us after we closed our initial funding. Myself, my four cofounders and our operations manager Dave.
Two weeks later Sid joined as our design engineering director. Within two months we added three more design engineers bringing us to ten employees.
We held company meetings every Friday afternoon in the large conference room next to my office. We had one row of cubicles (that we bought for $100) that everyone sat in. There was room for four more rows of cubes before we ran out of space which we would a couple of years down the road.
The environment at this early stage was intimate.
When you’re in a small team environment, you get to know everyone very well. That’s the beauty of a really early stage startup.
You should take advantage of this stage of your company’s development to build strong bonds with you and your team.
You’ll likely be in the process of recruiting and building your first product at the same time. There will be a lot of pressure (and there should be) to get the product out.
Don’t lose focus on the importance of your company culture. Bringing in the so-called “brilliant jerk” can have a…
