189. How to build a $10M company without meetings or managers, with James Hawkins, Co-CEO at PostHog

🎧 Welcome back to Truth, Lies & Work, the award-winning psychology podcast from the HubSpot Podcast Network, hosted by Chartered Occupational Psychologist Leanne Elliott and business owner Al Elliott.

This week, we’re joined by James Hawkins, co-founder and co-CEO of PostHog—a dev tools company turning $10M+ ARR without any managers, meetings, or micromanagement. James’s approach? Treat your company like a bunch of tiny startups.

👀 If you’ve ever wondered what work would feel like without middle managers, weekly check-ins, and change committees… this is your episode.

💡 Key Takeaways from James Hawkins

⚙️ Small Teams > Big Bureaucracy

James explains how structuring PostHog into autonomous 2–6 person teams has helped them ship faster, stay scrappy, and avoid the productivity drag of large orgs.

🔁 Engineers Lead, Managers Step Aside

Forget micromanagement. At PostHog, engineers decide what gets built—and team leads don’t even get paid more.

💥 Just Ship It

Forget pre-meetings and permission-seeking. PostHog favours “build it and test it” over endless validation and speculation.

🔍 Radical Transparency

From salaries to sabbatical policies, PostHog runs almost everything in public. Their internal company handbook? It’s online for the world to read.

🚀 Chaos is a Feature, Not a Bug

James shows how a dose of “organised chaos” can unlock innovation, ownership, and next-level productivity—if you hire the right people.

🔗 Resources & Links

PostHog website

https://posthog.com/

James on X (Twitter)

https://x.com/james406

PostHog’s Newsletter

https://newsletter.posthog.com/

📢 Enjoyed this episode?

Follow or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, leave a review, and share this episode with a fellow founder, engineer or curious manager who wants to do work differently. And come say hi on LinkedIn—we’d love to hear your thoughts.

🧠 General Support with Mental Health and Well-being

If you’ve been affected by anything in this episode or are currently struggling with your mental health, the following resources may help:

Mind: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/

Samaritans (UK): Call 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org

💬 Connect with Al & Leanne

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Al: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisisalelliott/

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Email: hello@truthliesandwork.com

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