ElevenLabs CEO Mati Staniszewski is assigning an engineer to each non-technical team.
Non-technical groups across the firm are already developing custom tools for their needs.
The organization relies on a micro-team setup that emphasizes full end-to-end ownership.

To vibe code across every function, one essential ingredient stands out: an engineer to demonstrate the ropes.

In a Sequoia Capital presentation shared last week, ElevenLabs CEO Mati Staniszewski revealed plans to place an engineer within every non-technical team at the voice AI startup.

"Our people operations, go-to-market, and legal teams will each include an engineer focused on creating automations and elevating the skills of the group," he stated. "This approach is proving invaluable now, as everyone ramps up vibe coding efforts."

Staniszewski, who co-founded ElevenLabs in 2022, highlighted how non-technical teams are proactively building their own solutions.

"The potential is huge - from scraping data for hiring and recruitment to reviewing historical data for future gains," he noted.

The firm recently rolled out a scoring system tailored for the go-to-market and sales functions.

This tool has transformed negotiations for the sales team, eliminating frequent queries to Staniszewski about concessions for prospects.

Earlier this year in February, ElevenLabs secured $500 million in Series D funding, pushing its valuation to $11 billion. The London-based startup employed 350 people as of November, per Andreessen Horowitz.

End-to-End Ownership

ElevenLabs embraces a rising organizational trend where teams gain full autonomy and self-reliance. Engineering groups manage everything from design to promotion, while non-technical units craft tools to streamline their processes.

The workforce splits into roughly 20 micro-teams of five to 10 members apiece, according to Staniszewski in a September discussion.

Each micro-team controls a specific product domain, like studio tools or voice agents, enabling rapid progress.

Leaders at AI coding ventures such as Cognition and Kilo, backed by General Catalyst, stress ownership as critical for attracting and retaining talent.

"Identify an issue, resolve it," said Emily Cohen, head of people and operations at Cognition, in a recent interview. "We reject the old-school mindset of 'that's someone else's responsibility.'"