Hey!

Chris here. Welcome to Blueprint—the newsletter to help you build a winning engineering team.

I've recently been upping my game on LinkedIn and it's been incredible for me to share my thoughts from 20+ years of experience in this space.

But I realized I have so much more to share...

No really. I have a running list of topics in my Notes app.

Safe to say we'll never run out.

In the first edition, I want to talk about sizing engineering teams.

After building my own team at Surton and helping hundreds of other teams over 15 years, it's become my standard for structuring engineering departments.

Today, I'll break down my playbook.

Let’s get into it.

📒 DEEP DIVE

How to Build Engineering Teams That Scale Without Breaking

The team structures I've used to build 100+ successful engineering orgs, from startup to scale-up.

Every successful engineering org I've built comes down to 3 specific team sizes.

Get these wrong, and communication breaks down. Get them right, and you can scale almost infinitely.

Here are the 3 stages you need to know:

1. Elite Teams of 2-4 engineers

2. Core Units of 6-8 engineers

3. Orchestration of 4-6 teams

Let me show you exactly how each of these works.

1) Elite Teams (2-4 Engineers)

This stage is generally for very early-stage startups—think seed-funded or pre-seed, often under 20 employees total and potentially pre-revenue (or just beginning to generate it).

Early on, your engineering team is tight-knit.

This is your SEAL Team—a small, elite unit where every member must be exceptional. There's zero room for underperformance at this size.

These tiny teams can move mountains because communication is instant and they're super tight-knit.

They breathe the same problems, ship constantly, and move like lightning.

But here's the catch—while these teams are incredible, they run on individual heroics. Try to scale your entire company this way, and everything breaks.

At a certain point, you'll need to scale to Stage 2.

2) Core Units (6-8 Engineers)

This structure becomes relevant for 20–100 employee companies with $1M–$10M+ ARR that have found PMF, moving past startup chaos into sustained, predictable execution.

This is your execution sweet spot. The magic isn't just the number—it's the mix:

➝ Frontend developers: They shape the user experience, ensuring every click and interaction feels effortless. Without them, even the best backend work goes unnoticed.

➝ Backend architects: The backbone of your systems, designing the logic and infrastructure that keep everything running smoothly, even at scale.

➝ Platform specialists: They build and maintain the tools, pipelines, and frameworks that allow your team to ship faster and better.

➝ Data engineers: They build the pipelines, consolidate data from multiple sources, clean and test it, and ensure it’s rock solid. Without them, even the prettiest dashboards fall apart.

Each unit needs this diverse mix because they're handling everything from customer-facing features to platform stability. At first, you might have just one of these teams. Eventually, you'll build out to multiple teams as you scale.

Each unit here needs time to find its rhythm, build its language, and learn its strengths. But when they click, they're unstoppable.

3) Orchestration (4-6 Teams) 

Orchestration is for scaling engineering strategically across efficient "Core Units." Companies here often exceed 100 employees, with $10M–$50M+ ARR or more.

This is your manager of managers phase.

Why these specific numbers? Beyond 4-6 teams in an engineering org, communication breaks down.

Anything below 4, and you can't handle scale.

But of course, there's a catch here too:

These leaders split their time between strategic work with the board and coaching first-time managers. They need enough bandwidth to craft the vision and teach leadership—that's why the team count stays small.

The key?

Keep your company as flat as possible. Every layer between engineers and customers makes it harder to build what matters.

Here's how you know you've got it right:

➝ Your SEAL Teams tackle the impossible

➝ Core Units drive consistent execution

➝ Lean leadership keeps it all moving.

That's it. That's the formula I've seen work hundreds of times.

Now you have the blueprint to build yours.

🎙 EPISODE OF THE WEEK

I recently started a podcast with my brother Matt Reynolds.

Between us, we've been business owners for almost 40 years. We've walked through every stage—dealing with all the anxiety and unknowns along the way.

Our goal is to walk with you as you build your company, giving you the confidence to make the decisions that'll grow your business exponentially.

Take a listen here.

BEFORE YOU GO…

That's all I've got for this one. Thanks for reading.

By the way, what topics would you want me to write about? Building out my content calendar for the next few weeks, and want to make sure this stuff is as valuable as possible for you.

Reply back to this email and let me know.

Talk next time,

Chris.

PS: If you need help scaling your engineering org, Surton is here when you’re ready 🙂