Startup org chart example
A 25-person software company a year after its Series A: functional at the top, squads underneath, and product managers with a solid line to product and a dotted one to the squad they actually spend their days in.
How a software startup is usually structured
At this size a startup is functional: engineering, product, design, sales, customer success, and a finance-and-people role that will split in two by the next funding round. The CEO has six or seven direct reports, which is about the maximum before a COO appears. A chief of staff, if there is one, is staff — beside the CEO, not a layer below.
Engineering is where the shape gets interesting. Past eight or ten engineers, the CTO stops managing individuals and squads form, each with an engineering manager — usually the first two senior engineers, now player-coaches. The squads are named after what they own (platform, product, growth), not after technologies.
Product managers are the matrix. They report to the head of product for craft, priorities and career, and dotted-line into the squad they work with every day. Designers usually stay in a design team for the same reason. The dotted line is not decoration: it's who a PM's engineering manager goes to when the roadmap and the sprint disagree.
Typical titles by level
The vocabulary these charts use, from the top down. Titles vary by country and by company; the levels don't.
| Level | Titles you'll see |
|---|---|
| Leadership | CEO, CTO, COO (usually after about 40 people), Head of Product or CPO, Head of Design, VP Sales, Head of Customer Success, Head of Finance & People, Chief of Staff |
| Managers and leads | Engineering Manager, Tech Lead (often not a manager), Product Lead, Design Lead, Sales Manager, Support Lead, People Ops Lead |
| Individual contributors | Senior Engineer, Engineer, Data Engineer, Product Manager, Product Designer, Account Executive, Sales Development Rep, Customer Success Manager, Support Engineer, Recruiter |
| What appears later | VP Engineering (between the CTO and the managers), Director of Product, RevOps, Solutions Engineer, Finance Manager, Head of Marketing |
Where these charts go wrong
Startup charts go stale fastest of any: the one drawn in January is wrong by March. Common failures are a CTO with fourteen direct reports because 'we're flat', product managers drawn inside engineering so nobody owns the roadmap, and a chart that is really the fundraising deck's org slide — aspirational, with people who don't exist yet drawn as if they did.
Questions people ask
- Should product managers report to engineering?
- Usually not. Give them a solid line to a head of product (or the CEO while there isn't one) and a dotted line to their squad's engineering manager. A PM who reports to engineering tends to become a project manager for the sprint; one with no line into the squad tends to write documents nobody builds.
- How do you show squads or pods on an org chart?
- One engineering manager per squad, engineers stacked underneath, with the PM and designer drawn in their own functions and dotted-lined in. Name the squad in the manager's title ('Engineering Manager, Platform') so it survives the export.
- What does a startup org chart look like at 10, 25 and 50 people?
- At 10, everyone reports to a founder. At 25 (this chart), functions have heads and engineering has squads. At 50, a VP Engineering sits between the CTO and the managers, sales has regions or segments, and a COO or head of operations takes finance, people and legal off the CEO.
- When do you need engineering managers?
- When the CTO has more than about eight engineers, or when two squads want different things from the same person. The first managers are the senior engineers who are already doing the job informally; the chart just admits it.
Other industries
- ManufacturingTwo shifts, and quality kept out of production's line.
- LogisticsDispatch runs the day; supervisors run the people.
- ConstructionOffice and field, meeting on every project.
- NonprofitThe board on top, programmes beside the money.
- Medical practiceA clinical line and a business line, crossing at nursing.
- SchoolDepartments led by teachers who also manage.
- HotelSix divisions around one general manager.
- Marketing agencyDisciplines own people; pods own the work.
- Security & facilities servicesSites stacked under supervisors; a 24-hour control room.
- Sales teamRegions for closers, a team for openers, RevOps beside them.
Or start from a structure — functional, divisional, matrix or flat — or from your own spreadsheet.
Make it yours
Download the spreadsheet, replace the names, import it — the chart redraws itself. Or start empty and drag people until it's true. Building is free at any size.