Cut the Team, Sharpen the Focus — Vaughan Shanks, Cydarm | Ep 29

>> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠David Brennan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

>>  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Arkeo AI⁠, SaaS Copilot

In this episode of SaaS Founder Stories, I talk with Vaughan Shanks, co-founder and CEO of Cydarm, about what happens when you’re forced to cut the team — but don’t want to lose momentum. Cydarm is a cybersecurity platform built for real-world collaboration. After downsizing in 2023, they didn’t just survive. They got faster.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
→ Cuts forced Cydarm to focus on one critical path per sprint
→ Coordination overhead dropped — and productivity actually improved
→ The team stopped measuring speed and started optimizing clarity
→ Support roles became unblockers, not context-switchers
→ The lesson: smaller teams, with clearer goals, build better

SOUND BITES
→ "We had five people before — doing five things. Now we do one thing well."
→ "After the reset, we were more productive than ever."
→ "It’s not about going fast. It’s about getting out of your own way."
→ "Focus isn’t doing less. It’s finishing more of the right thing."

If you’ve been forced to do more with less — this episode will change the way you think about team structure, sprints, and operational clarity. Subscribe to SaaS Founder Stories wherever you listen.