

Ask HN: How big is your IT staff? How big in YC companies? - Uchikoma

In the second edition of my ebook "12 Things to Reduce Your Lead Time and Time to Market" I would like to know about the optimal percentage of IT staff depending on company type. Obviously there is a correlation between the size of IT and time to market (the bigger the better?) and I would like to include this in the next ebook. I've also created a survey monkey form<p>http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=N3_2fcIesPy8lFdzvHTor2cw_3d_3d<p>It would be kind if you could answer 5 questions (30 sec max :-) Thanks.
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swombat
_Obviously there is a correlation between the size of IT and time to market
(the bigger the better?)_

No, actually. It's certainly the case for start-ups that smaller is better.
Smaller is more nimble, more creative, less politics-driven, and forced to
focus on what matters (because you can't afford anything else).

I'd say a team of 2-4 technical founders/early employees is ideal, though it's
certainly possible to do it with just 1. More than that and you'll spend more
time managing staff that building things.

Of course, it all depends on what you're building, too. However, to reduce
your lead time, reducing the team size is a good thing for start-ups.

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ScottWhigham
I don't care what it is but anytime anyone makes a statement on HN there's
always someone waiting to say, "No, actually."

Look - there's no way you can definitively say, "No" or "Yes" because there
are so many different situations. Funded vs. non-funded, competitive market
vs. build the market, require proprietary hardware vs. web app, etc. How the
hell can we say, "Smaller is better" if we are trying to build a legitimate
competitor to Google? Clearly it hasn't been (historically speaking).

Enough with the absolutes - there is a correlation between the size of IT and
time to market _in many situations yet in others there is none._

