As a startup team grows, there's a natural tendency to promote strong individual contributors to "player/coach" roles, meaning they do their day job while also managing teammates. This saves money in the short term and provides an easy reward for strong players. This also leads to "I-Formations" on your org chart, where each manager has only one or two direct reports. For instance: in the sketch below, the VP Marketing hires and manages the Director, who in turn hires and manages the Associate.