Google‘s Vice President of Product Robby Stein is pushing back against Silicon Valley’s obsession with lean teams, warning that the startup world’s “cult” mentality around staying small and scrappy can actually kill promising products before they reach their potential. Speaking on “Lenny’s Podcast” published Saturday, Stein argued that while lean thinking has merit for building internal conviction, it often leads teams to give up too early or critically underinvest in their products.

Why small teams fail: underinvestment kills products before they scale

Stein, who previously helped launch Instagram Stories before joining Google to lead AI-powered search products, pointed to the massive effort behind foundational AI models as evidence that some breakthroughs simply require scale and patience. Products built on technological breakthroughs need substantial resources and time to succeed, he explained on the podcast. Teams that cling too long to scrappiness risk watching their ideas “die on the vine” within big companies, while startups may run out of runway before learning what actually works.

Two signs it’s time to stop being scrappy and start scaling up

The Google executive identified two critical milestones that signal it’s time to invest and scale up: internal conviction, when teams believe they’ve found something special, and external validation, when real users beyond friends and family keep returning. Stein urged founders to think early about building teams capable of creating strong product versions rather than clinging to the myth that two people can stay lean until achieving product-market fit.His comments come as AI startups demonstrate remarkable efficiency with tiny teams—Anysphere’s Cursor grew from $1 million to $100 million in annual recurring revenue with under 50 employees. Even Big Tech has embraced this approach, with Meta’s superintelligence AI unit operating as a small, talent-dense team. However, Stein maintains that investing adequately to build the best possible version requires “the right group,” not just the smallest one.