Power to the Person

McCormick’s piece from 2020 captured a structural shift that has only accelerated since: the emergence of the hyper-leveraged individual. Historically, scaling a business required scaling headcount, which meant taking on the massive organizational drag of management, HR, and cultural misalignment. Today, the modern creator stack—ranging from code-generation tools to specialized SaaS platforms—allows a single, deeply focused operator to wield the capital and operational leverage that used to require a team of fifty people.

This isn't just about media and newsletters; it’s a profound shift in how we think about engineering and product development. When the friction of infrastructure and distribution drops to zero, the bottleneck shifts entirely to unique insight, curation, and taste. As a founder, this forces a hard question: do we actually need to hire more people, or do we just need better leverage? The future belongs to lean, highly-capitalized individuals who understand how to orchestrate networks of tools and freelancers rather than building internal empires.

What stuck with me

• Headcount is liability: Building a massive team is no longer a sign of success but a sign of operational inefficiency in the modern software era.
• The leverage stack: Solo operators can now access institutional-grade tools and distribution platforms that completely level the playing field against incumbent corporations.
• Premium on taste: When anyone can build and distribute a product instantly, the only durable competitive advantages are unique curation, design aesthetic, and authentic connection.