"The most underrated thing about profitability is how much peace of mind it gives you. Once you're profitable, you stop worrying about survival and focus on what really matters: building something great." - Karri Saarinen

I enjoyed the thoughts from Karri, the co-founder and CEO of Linear on profitability, hiring, tenure and more. Many of the reflections ring true based on my experience with Buffer.

In particular, I'm inspired by the assertion that it's possible to achieve great growth as well as profitability, and that you get many benefits by growing profitably. With Buffer, we've always felt more relaxed with greater conviction when we've been profitable. I have no doubt we build clearer value for customers when we have the peace of mind of profitability and treat growth as an outcome rather than a goal. And we've always made more unique and differentiating moves when we've been profitable with control of our path.

"I’d argue that we now live in a world where it’s not just easier to get ramen profitable, but traditionally profitable – while also growing fast."

"Profitability isn't unambitious; it's controlling your own destiny. It means you don't have to rely on investors for survival. It means you can focus on your unaltered vision and mission. And it means you as a founder decide the pace of growth. And once you experience it, it's hard to imagine doing things any other way."

"When you're profitable, you make decisions based on what's best for your customers and your product, not what's best for impressing investors."

I also love what Karri shares about diligence in hiring and striving to find great people who can elevate your team in specific ways, rather than celebrating the size of the team or aiming to complete a blueprint of an org chart.

We have a pretty lopsided and asymmetric org chart at Buffer because over the years, we've moved away from aiming to have a perfect set of layers and leaders in every team. At each stage, the needs for the business are specific, and the people you have will always have a unique set of strengths and weaknesses. It's better to aim for strong teams that produce great outcomes than the perfect org structure. And we've always strived to remain lean and small for the scale of our brand and revenues. People are often surprised to hear that at over $23M in ARR, we're only 75 people.

"After PMF, every hire should address a specific, pressing need – not just fill out an org chart."

"Being understaffed compared to benchmarks almost always should be a source of pride, not a problem. People should be surprised how small your team is, not how big it is."

"What holds you back is rarely team size – it's the clarity of your focus, skill and ability to execute. Larger teams mean slower progress, more management overhead, more meetings, more opinions, and usually dilution of vision and standards. Yet growing the team has somehow become a symbol of success."

💬 Link to Karri's awesome article in the comments.