Silos aren’t a big-company problem. I’ve seen them fully formed at eight people.
The head of sales stops looping in product because it’s faster to just decide. Finance stops sharing numbers because “people won’t understand them.” By 25 people there are three versions of reality running inside one company.
Where it breaks first
- Finance and sales: pricing without margin data, discounts approved without knowing their cost, quota hit on deals that lose money.
- Sales and product: a roadmap built around whoever is loudest.
- Ops and everyone: reactive hiring and vendors renewed without review.
Fix one this quarter. Start with finance and sales.
Should everyone see the numbers?
My view: yes. Share ARR, burn and margin at every all-hands. The companies I’ve seen struggle aren’t the ones where employees knew too much. They’re the ones where leadership hoarded information and called it strategy.
“Just to confirm”
Even when people talk, alignment breaks quietly. Two people agree on the what and never confirm the how, who or when. The most useful words in business aren’t “I agree.” They’re “Just to confirm…”
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