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    The ‘2 pizza’ days are over. Here’s what everyone in business and tech is saying about team size.

    Monah AnthonyBy No Comments2 Mins Read
    Post Views: 6
    • Silicon Valley is awash in talk about tiny teams.
    • Many are citing AI explicitly when they talk about why they need smaller teams.
    • The changes mean Jeff Bezos‘ famed “two pizza” may no longer hold true.

    Amazon founder Jeff Bezos famously suggested that to maintain productive meetings, everyone present should be able to be fed with two pizzas.

    In the age of AI, teams across business and tech are shrinking. Some executives have said that’s why they slashed jobs. Others just want more streamlined divisions.

    It remains to be seen if OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s prediction of 10-person companies with billion-dollar valuations will come true.

    In the meantime, there will likely be a lot fewer pizzas or a lot more leftovers.

    Here’s how corporate leaders are thinking about team size.

    Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said his division has made a very big shift to scaling down the size of its average teams.Before AI, Mosseri said the average team was roughly a baker's dozen. Now, Instagram has pods, consisting of four to six engineers who are a bit more generalists, a member of the product staff, and a specialized expert for whatever the team is working on.What's clearly happening is all of the functions are starting to bleed into each other, and the whole industry's wrestling with what that means, Mosseri said during an episode of Lenny's Podcast in July.Mosseri said the leaner approach meant his teams can often move faster and make better decisions, a little bit less designed by committee.

    Adam MosseriBusiness Insider USA

    Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said building the future of AI doesn't require large teams either.In order to make progress in AI, you don't need like many, many hundreds of AI researchers or thousands or anything like that, Zuckerberg said during an episode of the No Priors podcast in June. I think you can really make progress with a very strong group of a dozen or a couple dozen people.

    Mark ZuckerbergBusiness Insider USA

    Block CEO Jack Dorsey cited gains from AI as the reason he cut nearly half the staff at the fintech.We're already seeing that the intelligence tools we're creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company, Dorsey wrote on X in February, explaining the decision.Dorsey said he had two options when he considered the future of Block, the parent company of Square, Cash App, Afterpay, TIDAL, Bitkey, and Proto.I had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. I chose the latter, he wrote.

    Jack DorseyBusiness Insider USA

    Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the crypto giant would experiment with team size as it sought to be leaner, faster, and more efficient for our next phase of growth.Armstrong announced in May that Coinbase was laying off roughly 14% of its workforce.We'll be concentrating around AI-native talent who can manage fleets of agents to drive outsized impact, he wrote in a post outlining the move. We'll also be experimenting with reduced pod sizes, including 'one person teams' with engineers, designers, and product managers all in one role.

    Brian ArmstrongBusiness Insider USA

    Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said the social network is already seeing the success of smaller teams.We have already witnessed small squads leveraging AI tools to drive meaningful progress across several important initiatives, including Snapchat+, enhanced ad platform performance, and efficiency improvements in our Snap Lite infrastructure, Spiegel wrote in an April letter.At the time, Spiegel reiterated that Snap is facing a crucible moment requiring a new way of working that is is faster and more efficient. Snap laid off roughly 16% of its full-time workforce.Spiegel had previously laid out an ambitious plan for streamlined teams, which he compared to startups.Five to seven teamssquads of 10 to 15 peoplewill run like startups inside Snap, with single-threaded leaders accountable for outcomes, he wrote in a September 2025 letter. Weekly demo days, 90-day mission cycles, and a culture of fast failure will keep us moving.

    Evan SpiegelBusiness Insider USA

    Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami said AI has sparked the most significant shift in how companies are built since the invention of modern programming languages in the 1970s.It also means we need to become a faster, leaner, and flatter organization, Abrahami wrote on X in May.Wix laid off roughly 20% of its workforce. Abrahami said the decision was due in part to a desire to reorganize the web development company.We are moving to a structure with fewer levels between any member of our leadership and the most junior person on the team, Abrahami wrote. Fewer layers means faster decisions, clearer ownership, and less distance between the people setting direction and the people building the product - but it also means a smaller number of people.

    Avishai AbrahamiBusiness Insider USA

    JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said small, nimble teams should be able to operate like elite military special forces units.The teams needed to tackle these challenges should be small and authorized with the decision-making ability to move and act like Navy SEALs or the Army's Delta Force, Dimon wrote in his annual letter to shareholders, published in April.While Dimon didn't call out AI specifically, he said teams need total buy-in from their members, so the groups can move at the super speed JPMorgan needs.

    Jamie DimonBusiness Insider USA

    <img src="https://ocdn.eu/pulscms-transforms/1/NYWktkuTURBXy9iODIwZjE1My05NTlkLTQ5MTEtOGZlNC03YmM5ZGVmZGM4ZjguanBlZ5GVAs0DFs0CD8LD" alt="Cursor field chief technology officer David Pan thinks it’s time to revise Bezos’ pizza rule.He was right about small teams, Pan wrote on X in July. But in the AI era, two pizzas are too much pizza.Pan praised the all-time great metaphor, but said it was time to replace it.RIP to the two pizza team, he wrote.”>

    David PanCursor field chief technology officer David Pan thinks it’s time to revise Bezos’ pizza rule.”He was right about small teams,” Pan wrote on X in July. “But in the AI era, two pizzas are too much pizza.”Pan praised “the all-time great metaphor,” but said it was time to replace it.”RIP to the two pizza team,” he wrote.Business Insider USA

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