One of the most interesting (and popular) images on the Lighthouse blog is this one:

Your communication grows *geometrically* as you add more people to your team.

This is true for your 5 person startup growing to 10, and as a manager having your team grow from 4 to 8 people...

2/ This reality presents a lot of challenges, and leads to 2 key mistakes:

1) You think if you've mastered managing a few people, you can equally crush managing a large team
2) You get in a mode thinking about managing n+1 team members instead of thinking about scaling yourself

3/ Understanding this concept is one of the key differences between a new manager and a veteran.

The veteran leader recognizes when things they're currently doing will break in the future and plans ahead.

The inexperienced manager will slam right into the wall.

4/ How do veteran leaders navigate this? They follow a few key rules:
1) The Rule of 7
- Teams work best when they're no larger than ~7 people.
@JeffBezos calls this the 2 pizza rule.
@rands calls it the "Rule of 7+/-3" https://randsinrepose.com/archives/seven-plus-or-minus-three/
@ttunguz says "roughly 7" as well

5/ Knowing that is coming, they plan ahead for when they hit / exceed that number:

1) Ask their team who has interest in being a manager
2) Start teaching people how to be a manager, and possibly try it out with an intern
3) Make sure budget is ready for those promotions

5b/ If no one wants to be a manager on the team, then you find out *well before* you need to have managers reporting to you.

This allows you to either:
A) Create a job rec for a manager to hire in
B) Make sure one of hires 5-9 on your team have management interest

6/ Then, like the perfect no-look pass, the veteran promotes *2 managers* at once, bc:

1) All your training can be done on 2 people at once instead of likely twice in a few months
2) Both can have fewer direct reports as they settle in
3) Both have a peer to support each other

And for you, promoting two managers at once means you can move everyone to reporting to the managers at once.

This saves you in a few ways:
1) There's no politics around who still reports to you.
2) 100% of your focus can be on those 2 new managers and your new responsibilities

If you're already feeling like your team is too big, or know it's coming, then you'll learn a lot more from our full, in depth post here: https://getlighthouse.com/blog/developing-leaders-team-grows-big/

And if you want these kinds of lessons right to your inbox every week, sign up here: http://bit.ly/GetLighthouseBlog