Small teams, massive impact

The era of bespoke VC and capital efficiency is here

Author

Michael Morgenstern
February 11, 2025

Happy Tuesday Brex community,

Today's AI startups are scaling fast—hitting $1-10M ARR with minimal headcount and soaring gross margins. The question is simple: why raise more when you can do more with less? Lean teams, driven by designers, product managers, and deep domain experts, are proving that 10-person super teams can create $100M ARR businesses.

We are seeing and viewing positively that bespoke venture capital is back. Smaller, agile funds will outperform bloated, top-heavy players as startups demand capital that matches their streamlined operations. In today's market, efficiency wins—smart capital allocation and lean staffing models are rewriting the rules of growth. Moreover, being hyper-aware of sales and marketing spend is crucial; growing fast is impressive, but efficiency is the real metric in this era.

Growing together, Michael Morgenstern

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Jason Flack is co-founder and CEO of Collective OS

Collective OS is the operating system for the $6 trillion professional services industry, enabling firms to manage, discover, and scale their external partner networks. Designed to foster seamless collaboration, the platform empowers clients, service providers, subcontractors, and referral partners to coordinate and work together efficiently within a shared infrastructure. With 90% of firms relying on partnerships to service their clients and act as a mechanism for growth, Collective OS is uniquely positioned to become the industry standard for managing and growing a professional services business.

Ambassadors Perspective: Companies today are racing to do more with fewer resources, fueled by AI, remote work, and globalization. But there’s a dirty secret in professional services: nearly every firm leans on a hidden web of referral partners to deliver for their clients. That’s where Collective OS comes in. By harnessing these networks of partners—much like Facebook did when it enabled users to invite close friends—Collective OS creates a powerful network effect that drives new business for their customers, and more revenue for their partners - thereby creating an ecosystem where everyone wins, together. 

And the results speak for themselves. Launched less than a year ago and technically still in Stealth, the company has already onboarded over 225 customers, seen record-breaking growth for four consecutive months, and 5x'd the business since July 2024. 

 

The financial stack you can bank on. Trusted by 1 in 3 US startups, Brex allows you to manage your spend from MVP to IPO. Interested? Sign up here using the referral code NEWSLETTER and get 25,000 bonus points, $5K AWS credits, $2.5K OpenAI credits and up to $150K in SaaS discounts.

Don’t hesitate to reach out,🦾!