There's a revenue point — usually somewhere between $5M and $15M — where the org chart that got you here starts working against you. Not because anyone did anything wrong, but because the founder is still the decision-maker for things that should now belong to someone else.

The tell is simple: if a $2,000 creative decision or a $500 inventory call still needs the founder's sign-off, the constraint on growth isn't strategy, it's structure. Every hour spent on a decision that belongs three levels down is an hour not spent on the handful of decisions only the founder can make.

Fixing this isn't about hiring more people. It's about being precise on what each role actually owns, and then genuinely letting go of it — which is usually the harder part.