How to Build Small

The thing nobody tells you about running a small studio is that the smallness has to be defended every single day. There is always a reason to add another person. There is always a reason to take another meeting. There is always a reason to make the thing bigger.

Three rules I keep returning to

1. Hire only when the pain is acute. Hiring out of optimism almost always backfires.
2. Say no to most of what arrives. A studio's identity is the negative space around its work.
3. Ship slowly enough to be proud of every release. Speed is a feature; haste is a tax.

The real cost of growth

Every person you add is an entire weather system. Their preferences, their fears, their good days and bad days, all of it now lives inside your work. This is not a complaint — it's just the math. You don't get to grow without inheriting weather.

So when you do grow, grow on purpose.