[samwillis]

They way I had it described to me was that the optimal number of direct reports to one person is 7 (hence why military squads tend to be about 8 people). All companies go through growing pains as they reach ~7^n people and have to put in another layer of management. So about 7, 50, 340, 2400…

In reality most companies will have a 2-3 founders running it and so those numbers are more like, 14-20, 100-150, 700-1000.

I have never worked somewhere with larger teams so I may well be wrong, however there is definitely a step in small businesses with two founders at about the 20 people point.

[encrux]

This seems surprisingly reasonable for my personal experience, so I'm gonna use it as a general rule now /s

[ethanbond]

Inquiry like this should be left to the people who experience it, and of course all they have is their personal experience and then opportunities to share their personal experience.

Do we really need some outside authority to tell us what we’re seeing and how to talk about it?

[influx]

The term you are looking for is Span of Control.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Span_of_control