The team of eight is a different company

Telltale sign: you start emailing the colleague sitting three metres away.

The first time I noticed the organisation had moved into a different phase was when we started emailing each other while sitting three metres apart. Not because we disagreed or wanted to be passive-aggressive, but simply to put on record what had been agreed. That way we had something to fall back on later. At first I thought: how odd, surely he can just say it out loud? But eventually I realised the company simply wasn't the same company anymore. Where we used to sit around a table as three and make decisions out loud, we now had to account for the colleagues who weren't there, and the 'why' behind a decision became just as important.

On paper, growing from three employees to eight is a fine development: more hands, more shoulders under the work, more hours worked per week. But in practice it's something else entirely. To the outside world it stays the same organisation, but internally the company has to change the way it operates. When you're still three, quickly aligning with each other is free and painless, but at eight people you already have to organise it. Nobody announces this transition — you only notice it once you're already going through it.

From that moment on, things also start going wrong silently. But it takes a while before you see it. Because those new colleagues aren't on the same wavelength as you, they haven't built up the experience you share together. You quickly feel you need to spell things out more.

The classic reflex at a moment like this is very predictable: formalise processes, appoint a team lead, add a weekly stand-up meeting. Maybe a wiki or a Google Doc with agreements and guidelines on top of that.

Someone sets it up, it works well for six weeks ... and then dies a quiet death. Not because the team doesn't take it seriously, but because the solution sits in the same category as what's already going wrong. Tasks that are about your work, but aren't directly part of your work, soon end up forgotten in a corner. That's the same reason you never get round to writing documentation. There will always be something more urgent. But 'more urgent' isn't the same as 'more important', even if it feels that way.

That, broadly, is why Sarrai exists. Not to replace eight people, and not just to be able to use AI, but to solve that documentation problem. Sarrai follows along in all communication on the platform. It notes where things go wrong and actively suggests improvements. That way documentation stays accurate and you can adjust effortlessly, and those missing features finally get documented too. And all of this while everyone only has to put in minimal effort to get it all done.

You didn't hire your five new colleagues to run the same company. You've built a different company. And if you get it right now, your internal operation runs smoothly. Only then can you really grow in a scalable way.