Outsourcing and staffing as we knew them are dead.
Over the last year I ran technology audits across several companies.
When I got to the people layer, the numbers were hard to ignore:
(downsizing/rightsizing)
Company A: 20 engineers → 5
Company B: 17 engineers → 2
Company C: 17 engineers → 5
Same output. In some cases, better output.
Fewer handoffs. Fewer meetings. Clearer ownership.
This isn’t a theory. It’s what’s already happening.
Google is cutting. Oracle is cutting. Meta already did.
The difference is that large companies have data, benchmarks, and boards pushing them to act.
Smaller companies have none of that pressure — so the bloat stays hidden longer.
It’s 2026. AI doesn’t replace developers.
But 2 senior developers with the right tools and a clear architecture can now do what 15 used to do.
The question isn’t whether your team is too big.
The question is whether you’ve actually looked.
Most founders haven’t.
Not because they don’t care — but because nobody handed them a framework to do it.
- When did you last look at your team structure with fresh eyes?
If you’re not sure where to start, I do a free 30-minute sanity check: https://lnkd.in/dBZ8xjEa