We recently expanded our team at Mailbrew. This had a much bigger impact than I thought.
When I visualized going from two to three people, I thought that the main difference would be concurrency and that we would linearly be able to do more, but I am witnessing a much bigger effect.
We're thinking more thoroughly about our culture, processes and ambition.
Even if we went back to working as a duo (don’t plan to), we’d be in a much better place than before.
In a way, this reminds me about the advice friends gave us about YC: “Apply even if you are not interested in getting an investment right now, it will help you think bigger and highlight your flaws”. And so it did. Even these hiring decisions can be traced back to that interview.
What would your side-project look like if you had a new team member tomorrow? How would your roadmap and ambition change? How would your processes? It's an amusing though exercise. Should have done it sooner.