ElevenLabs' CEO says his startup runs on 20 micro teams - and he still interviews every hire

"ElevenLabs may havea few hundred employees, but its CEO said the voice-cloning AI startup isn't scaling like a typical tech firm. Instead of sprawling departments, ElevenLabs' employees are split into about 20 micro-teams of five to 10 people each, CEO and cofounder Mati Staniszewski said on an episode of the "Twenty Minute VC" podcast published Monday. Each team owns a product area - from the studio interface to enterprise voice agents - and is designed to move fast without layers of bureaucracy, he added."

""More people frequently doesn't fix the problem," Staniszewski said. "You don't need that many people to do something special." ElevenLabs said in a blog post on Monday that it has 330 employees and surpassed $200 million in revenue, with expectations to top $300 million by year's end. The company had been pacing to reach $100 million in annual revenue by the end of 2024, Business Insider reported last year."

""We now have a very small and mighty team that can learn from each other and move pretty quickly," he said. "I don't think there's a guarantee you get that in some of the other companies." Staniszewski said the company plans to expand head count to around 400 this year while sticking with its micro-team model. Even with hundreds of employees, he and his cofounder still interview every candidate themselves."

ElevenLabs organizes its staff into roughly 20 micro-teams of five to ten people, with each team owning a specific product area such as the studio interface or enterprise voice agents. The structure is intended to reduce bureaucracy and enable rapid iteration, with a belief that more headcount does not necessarily improve outcomes. The company currently has about 330 employees, exceeded $200 million in revenue, and expects to top $300 million by year-end while planning to expand head count to around 400. Founders continue to interview every candidate, and the company has won multimillion-dollar enterprise contracts and strong voice-AI benchmark performance.

Read at Business Insider