Growth Stage (10–50 engineers)

harpischord drill and bass, garage, piano afroswing · 3:22

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Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Ten engineers turn to fifty fast
Your keyboard days are fading past
Can't code every feature like before
Architecture plans need so much more
Database splits and service mesh
While interview schedules never rest

[Chorus]
Thirty building, twenty-five for people
Twenty-five architecture, twenty strategy
Hiring, structure, technical debt equal
Culture brewing, delegation key
Growth stage CTO, let go the code
Trust your team to share the load

[Verse 2]
Microservices calling out your name
Monolith creaking under strain
Junior developers need your guide
Senior engineers want space to stride
Code reviews pile up like autumn leaves
While system crashes make you grieve

[Chorus]
Thirty building, twenty-five for people
Twenty-five architecture, twenty strategy
Hiring, structure, technical debt equal
Culture brewing, delegation key
Growth stage CTO, let go the code
Trust your team to share the load

[Bridge]
Process introduction feels so wrong
But chaos grows when teams get strong
Standups, retrospectives, documentation
Save you from production devastation
Delegate the midnight debugging calls
Before your scaling empire falls

[Verse 3]
Team structure matters more than speed
Squads and tribes fulfill the need
Technical debt collectors knock
While you're building hiring docs
Engineering culture starts with you
Values lived, not just reviewed

[Chorus]
Thirty building, twenty-five for people
Twenty-five architecture, twenty strategy
Hiring, structure, technical debt equal
Culture brewing, delegation key
Growth stage CTO, let go the code
Trust your team to share the load

[Outro]
Fifty engineers need systems thinking
Not your fingers always linking
Classes, functions, database calls
Scale through people, not through sprawl

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