🎧 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.
⚙️ 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.
PostHog website
James on X (Twitter)
PostHog’s Newsletter
https://newsletter.posthog.com/
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.
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
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/truthlieswork/
Al: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisisalelliott/
Leanne: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetleanne
Email: hello@truthliesandwork.com
Book a call: https://savvycal.com/meetleanne/chat