In my career, the most impactful work I’ve done has always been on small teams. I eventually realized that this is how many important things get built.
Here are a few well-known examples of big things accomplished by small teams.
[1] Falcon 1 was developed at SpaceX by a team of 30 engineers, and it became the first privately funded liquid-fuel rocket to reach orbit in 2008.
[2] Pixar completed Toy Story with roughly 27 core animators and 22 technical directors. It was the first feature-length computer animated film.
[3] Berkshire Hathaway’s partnership began in 1956 with 7 limited partners and $105k in capital; by 1969 they were managing $100M.
[4] Instagram had 13 employees when Facebook acquired it for $1B in 2012.
[4] The first-generation iPod was built by a small Apple team of ~25 people.
[5] WhatsApp had 55 employees when Facebook acquired it for $19B in 2014.
[6] Renaissance Technologies began in the early 1980s with Jim Simons and a handful of mathematicians building the quantitative models that evolved into the Medallion Fund. The fund went on to deliver 39% net of fees for 30 years. The single best track record in modern investment history.
[7] Git was created in 2005 by Linus Torvalds with a small volunteer group.