Org chart template: a small startup

This is what most software startups look like at ten people, and the shape is driven by one thing: almost everybody has to be building or selling.

• Two founders split the company down the middle. One takes product and engineering, one takes everything commercial. It works because there is no overlap to argue about.
• There is no middle management. Six engineers report to one technical founder. That is at the top of a sane span of control, and it is the first thing that breaks at fifteen people.
• One person does design and one does support, and both are part time. Real startups buy fractions of roles before they buy whole ones.
• The open role is a second salesperson. Putting it on the chart makes the hiring plan visible to everybody, and makes it obvious that the commercial side is one person deep.

What to change first: your own split between the founders. If both of you are doing sales and neither owns the product, the chart will show two boxes with the same job, which is the useful warning.

What breaks next: at around fifteen people the technical founder cannot run eight engineers and still build. That is when a team lead layer appears — see the headcount guide on spans of control.