Inspiration gallery
Org design inspiration
Org Design Cookbook
A curated selection of org design practices from companies that publish how they structure teams, manage (or do not), size headcount, and weave AI into the operating system.
About this cookbook
What's this?
A pick-and-mix gallery of org design practices from companies that publish how they structure teams, manage (or do not), size headcount, and weave AI into the operating system.
How to use
- 1Browse by theme with the chapter nav, or scroll the full cookbook.
- 2Open live examples from the companies that published them, then remix what fits your stage and constraints.
Connecting structure to culture?
Use these org design ingredients alongside a culture diagnostic so structure choices match how open you actually want to be. Open Culture Framework.
With thanks
Shoutout to the companies whose open culture stance lets the rest of us learn.
Cursor
Grafana Labs
Gumroad
Linear
Perplexity
PostHog
SupabaseHow work is grouped
Team structure
Small teams, compound startups, and other shapes that put ownership close to the work.
PostHog
Startups within a startup: 2-6 person teams, each owns a product
View live example
Perplexity
Organised like slime mould: teams of 2-3, work flows to capacity
View live example
Rippling
Compound startup: multiple products, one shared infrastructure
View live example
What managers are for
Management philosophy
From no managers at all to narrow coach remits and meeting-light operating norms.
Cursor
No product managers, no approval chains, no layers
View live example
PostHog
Managers are coaches not task-setters: narrow remit explicitly defined
View live example
Supabase
No managers at any level, anywhere in the company
View live example
Linear
No standups, no mandatory meetings, zero-bug policy
View live example
How many people, and why
Headcount philosophy
ARR-per-person bets, distributed-from-day-one setups, and deliberate choices about who not to hire.
Linear
$100M ARR with 25 engineers: about $4M ARR per engineer
View live example
Cursor
About $5M ARR per employee: talent replaces management infrastructure
View live example
Gumroad
Stopped hiring junior, mid-level, and senior engineers: AI writes the code
View live example
Grafana Labs
Distributed first since founding: three co-founders, three continents, never co-located
View live example
Who you hire shapes the org
Hiring as org design
Hiring choices that encode management load, ownership scope, and how fast people level up.
Supabase
Bias toward ex-founders: they self-manage and do not need direction
View live example
Ramp
Hire junior with high aptitude, promote fast: tech lead in 2-3 years
View live example
Ashby
Hire fewer, stronger people: ownership over specific scope at every level
View live example
Structure meets AI
AI in the org
When AI agents, title-free impact, and "ask AI first" defaults become part of how the org is designed.
Influur
Org chart includes AI agents alongside humans and fractional workers
View live example
ElevenLabs
No titles internally: the moment you join you can have any impact
View live example
Perplexity
Ask AI before asking a colleague: not a policy, a structural default
View live example
More open resources
Other free templates and diagnostics from Open Org.
Want help remixing these into your org design?
Build an org design plan with AIBring your stage and constraints, then draft a structure-to-headcount plan inspired by the ingredients above.
Org Design Cookbook by Open Org. Contribute a practice at hello@openorg.fyi.