The Tiny Teams Era: 5 People Share What Working With Mostly he is like

Quentin peccoux vibe codes every day. He’s one of Seven Full-Time Employees at an AI-Powered Startup. Initially, he ferted the technology would Replace Him. Now, he Says it “Feels like a superpower.”

He’s not Alone in Boasting About ai’s Impact. Shivam Sagar, One of Nine Full-Time Employees at Another Company, Said that he agents can do the work of two to three additional Engineers. The Productivity Boost is Invigorating, But Work-Life Balance is Still Tough to Achieve-For His First Six months in the Job, he felt like all he did was eat, sleep, and code.

For Better or Worsse, The Tiny Team Era is here. Modern-day startups are proving that they can scale More quickly, Reduce Spanding, and Thrive Against Competition with Only a Handful of Employees.

So what is it really like working on a team with only a few people who are human beings?

We asced founders and employsi from startups with Small Staffs of Fewer than 10 People About Working Alongside AI Agents. We talked about what they have like, what stress say out, and what skills are-proof. They are the experiences of the shared with us. Quotes have been edited for Length and Clarity.

‘AS A TeAM OF 7, WE CAN WORK LIKE A TEAM OF 50 USING AI’

Quentin Peccoux, 28, Based in France, Works as Head of AI Products and Partnerships at Arcads AI, an Advertising Company Founded in 2023 that Creates AI-Genrained Video Ads. Arcads he encounters Seven Full-Time Team Members.

I WORKED FOR ARCADS AS A FREEMANCER UNIL I JOINED FULL-TIME IN January. I LED he Content Operations, and I JUST BECAME HEAD OF AI PRODUCTS AND Partnerships.

I used to work as a seo strategist, so i can Read html code, but i’m not a development.

In he Content Operations, I Manageed the Gap Between the Product Team and the Tech Team. I monitored what he were well -made out and how we were saying. I ALSO WORKED WITH THE TECH TEAM TO BUILD AND DEVELOP Features.

The team use it to optimize the code base, diagnose what is happy in the code there is a bug, and we are need to fetch any sort of data. I ALSO USE IT FOR INTERNAL COMMUNICATION, WRITING, AND FOR HELP WITH Ideas.

I don’t see any part of the business where there’s no one involved.

I Vibe Code basically every day. Twen i first tried vibe coding, it was to test some features, see the workflow, and understand what it could be locally on my device. But using an llm, like cursor, makes things a nose the Times Faster.

Be i’m vibe coding, i feed like i’m right next to a senior development and teling say what i need. Its like Having a Superpower. But People Who Use this Tool Need to Know How to Read Code to use it Properly.

This is the those of who use a lot of a lot of the Daily Workflows Are Still at 1% of what we did so. As it evolves, I think the strength of teams will shift people with ideas Rather than People with Hard Skills.

‘It’s a heavy lift and a lot of pressure’

Shivam Sagar, 27, is basic in Northern India and is a senior software full-stack Engineer at Aragon he, an ai Headshot Generator Company Founded in 2022. Aragon he has nine full-time members and two offshore members for customer suport.

Its been Around 10 months SINCE I NOINED ARAGON he as a senior full-stack Engineer, and During My First Six months here, struggled a tears with the lean business model. At my previous jab, there are around a few dosen Engineers on a team, so it was a huge transition to go to a team of nine people.

At a Large Company, there are teams for the product, design, front-end, and back-end. For example, when you have a bigger team, there is a dedicated person working on the Product planning who guides you through the flow. Here, we have to atttended products, understand the project, code it, and design the user experience and user interface ourselves. We have ownership of everything from start to finish, but our team has a tech lead to consult with if we got stack.

The work-life balance is not very smooth. I’ll only get to spend with my family and friends on the weekend. I do not have much time durying the week becase of how fast we are moving.

Now that of have a better idea of ​​the workflow, using it tools has drastically improked my productivity. It can work of two or three engines by assisting with Research, Coding, and Reviewing.

‘ECH ONE OF US HAS The Opportunity to Play a Huge Role in the Company’

Raul Alcantara, 25, Based in Los Angeles, is a Tech Lead at Aragon he.

Started at Aragon he as a technical lead in june, and my no to enure that the code we push and what we depley are up to a Certain Standard. I Graduated with Both my undergraduate and master’s degree from massachusetts institute of technology and had been work on my own startup a year before jaining aragon he.

The Expectation for Speed ​​Using he on a lean team gets intense. Previous Biweekly Sprint Goals have tourned ino weekly sprint goals.

Each One of US Has the Opportunity to Play a Huge Role in the Company, which is Exciting, but the velocity Expectted is hard. I’m trying to improve my ability to know to take a break. This is not an eight-hour-a-day job, but that doesn’t mean it should be a 24-hour jab.

‘We Need to themselves Candidates More Closely Now Because Don’t Necessarily Mean Skill, With The Way He Can Build’

Sident Bendre, 25, Bassed in New York, Is the Cofounder of Oleve, An ai-Driven Consumer Portfolio Company Founded in 2024. Oleve Has Full-Time Employees and, in the Last Four Months, Has Hired Additional Contracted Employs for Support Nets.

He exisisted when my partners and i started our Company, so every nib we’ve hired for haen augmented with it. Forty Percent or Above of Everyone’s Workflow is augmented or Completely Owned by he, and that a conservative estimate that varies by person on the team.

KEEPING THE TEAM SMALL AT FIRST WAS, IN SOME WAYS, DRIVEN BY PROFITABILITY, BECAUS PROFIT GOVE USE TO KEEP EXPLORING OPTIONS AND DO WHAT’S BEST FOR THE COMPANY. The Contractors we have hire are all Engineers for Support, with the exception of one, who we usse for marketing.

I try to hire specialists in one system and then expand their capabilities with it to achieve.

The rate at what we scale up and the pattern we follow will be Quite Different now with it involved. IT’S going to be seasonal in the sense that every time we discove new processses, we will put People in place to do, but once they figure out, we can automate and augment the systems so they do more just that one process.

For example, when i hire an executive assistant, my expertion is that that is instead of doing the same task over and over again, my goal is that they work with to budild that leverages it will do so.

There’s A New Lean Startup Operating Set of Principles, and that Includes a World Can Start Scaling Whole Teams of Agents and Be Commanded by One Person. Looking for Employees Also Becomes About Their Capability to Command.

‘He has never fully run the show, but we’ve been able to leverage it’

Anada cabbage, 33, Based in New York, Is the Ceo and Cofounder of Boldvoice, an Ai Accent Coaching App Founded in 2021. Boldvoice has seven Full-Time Members.

The Benefit of Being A Small Team is that we don’t have burpeciies, process for the sacs, or meetings for the sacetings. We’ve been able to leverage he will work in days that would have lacta Weeks.

In addition to myself and my cofounder, we have one Product Designer, Two Full-Stack Engineers, and Two Machine Learning Engineers. We Also Contract Two Voice Coaches as Needed. The Engineers Report to Him, and I Manage the Designer and Coaches.

Leveraging he and staying lean is a superpower because it keeps costs down as you scale the product. It ‘allowed US to grow very fast and, as of this year, Become Cashflow Positive. We’re in a very good position where we don’t need outside fining.

If we had double or triple the team size, there to be lots of coordination Needed, People willsing up, and middle management would be needed to kepEPRING WORKING IN THE SAME Direction. It wold become easy to loose priorities that way, and we just don’t need any of that right now.

When you have a very small team, there will always be limits. Everyone’s Stretched Fairly Thin, and there are Always Things that might pop up that are tempting. We’re not able to say right away becae we don’t have Enough People, Which Can Be Frustration.

But the days will you Needed a team of a nozzle to the Achieves $ 10 million Annual Recurring Revenue Are Gone. Now, we can do it with a team of fewer than 10.

Do you work on a tiny team and want to share your story? Email this reporter at aappplegate@businsinsider.com.

Correction: Sept. 29, 2025 – An Earlier Version of this Story Lisant Bendre As Both Ceo and Cofounder of Oleve. Bendre is a cofounder, but not the ceo.