Meta's marketing chief says early-stage startups shouldn't create one kind of team — the CEO needs to take charge

Alex Schultz, Meta's Chief Marketing Officer, emphasized that early-stage startups often err by forming dedicated growth teams too quickly. On a recent episode of the "Twenty Minute VC" podcast, he argued that founders should prioritize growth as their primary responsibility, particularly when their teams are still small. Schultz stated, "If you're in a very small company with around 200 or 300 employees, I would argue you shouldn't have a growth team. The entire company should be focused on growth, and at that point, no, you shouldn't delegate it away." He underscored that driving business growth is the CEO's most critical role. The right time to establish a growth team is only when a founder's responsibilities become too vast, encompassing strategy, product development, partnerships, or sales. Schultz believes that many startups prematurely seek a growth team when they reach around 50 employees, an approach he describes as misguided. At Meta, Schultz revealed that their growth teams are streamlined, consisting of a central team of a few hundred focused on essential infrastructure such as SEO and ad tech. Each of Meta's products, including Instagram and WhatsApp, has its own smaller growth team, typically comprising fewer than 100 members. "Across our nearly 100,000 employees, we have less than 1% in the growth team," he noted, highlighting the effectiveness of small, highly skilled teams in achieving growth. Schultz's insights resonate with an ongoing conversation in Silicon Valley regarding the importance of startup founders being actively involved in their companies. The term "founder mode" was popularized by Y Combinator's Paul Graham, who indicated that successful leaders should engage deeply with their businesses, as exemplified by Airbnb's CEO, Brian Chesky. George Arison, CEO of Grindr, also shared his alignment with the founder mode concept, noting that he actively uses the app to stay connected with the product's intricacies. "It's great that someone gave it a title, but that has been my management style forever," he remarked, emphasizing the importance of hands-on leadership.