The idea of the lean startup has always been appealing: small teams, fast execution, minimal waste. In the age of AI, that vision is partly becoming reality again—but with a twist.
On the R&D side, things have never been better.
A tiny group of excellent engineers can now do an absurd amount of work. Modern tooling, cloud infrastructure, and AI-powered development mean:
Fewer people can build and maintain complex systems
Prototyping is faster than ever
Iteration cycles are measured in days, not months
In many ways, it feels like going back to the 1990s: small teams, strong individual contributors, and a lot of creative freedom. If you love building, this is a fantastic time to be alive.
Then there’s the other half of the company.
On the sales and marketing side, things are… brutal.
Selling your product is freaking hard:
If you’re building something brand new, you first have to explain what it even is
If you’re building something familiar, you’re competing with hundreds of nearly identical solutions
Attention is scarce, trust is expensive, and distribution is everything
The result? “Lean” no longer means small across the board. It often means:
Tiny R&D (because building is efficient)
Huge sales and marketing (because getting traction is not)
And this is the frustrating paradox of modern startups. It’s never been easier to build something cool with a small team—and never harder to grow it without serious money behind you.
Bottom line:
It’s incredibly encouraging that a few people can still create powerful products. But it’s also sobering to realize that without deep pockets for marketing and sales, growth can feel almost impossible.
Building is cheap.
Being heard is not.