How Did Decagon Grow From 50 to 500 People?

Jesse Zhang says Decagon went from roughly 50 or 60 people to 500 in about the last year, close to a 10x jump. A year ago the headcount was something like 50.

The growth did not come from hiring ahead. For the first year and a half, and through about the first 100 people, Decagon hired only when the team felt the pain of a missing role. He and his co-founder did the early sales, and the first salespeople showed up when deals were already waiting for them. Companies that hired ahead and then had to fire people were the warning, so Decagon stayed lean on purpose. In hindsight the demand was real and they could have hired more, but they did not know that at the time. They hire ahead now, because a company this size cannot hire only after something breaks. He is pretty good with names, and that probably stopped around 200 people.