A Developer Got FIRED 5 Years Ago When I Told a CEO That Daily Standups SUCK
Here's the brutal math on why your daily standups are actually a $190K/year meeting tax—and what the best engineering teams do instead.
He fired me by saying "Cultural not fit."
I've worked with 50+ startup founders since then.
Startups who do daily standups?
Still garbage.
Here's What I See Every Single Week
- 12 people on a call
- 73 minutes long
- CEO "helping" solve a backend issue for 45 minutes
- 1 developer actually needed to be there
- 11 people wasted time
The Math Is Brutal
12 people × 73 minutes × 5 days = 60.8 hours/week
Average Developer salary: $120K/year ($60/hour)
Weekly waste: $3,648
Annual waste: $189,696
Dear CEOs: Your daily standups are a $190K/year meeting tax.
What That CEO Who Fired Me Never Understood
The best engineering teams I've worked with don't do standups at all.
They do something completely different.
They ship.
Companies That Don't Do Standups
- ✅ GitHub's first 100 employees? No standups.
- ✅ Basecamp at 50 people? No standups.
- ✅ Linear with 25 engineers? No standups.
What These Companies Have Instead
1. Async Updates
2 minutes vs 60 minutes
Team members post written updates when it makes sense for their schedule. No interruptions, no context switching.
2. Clear Ownership
One person per feature
No need for daily check-ins when everyone knows who's responsible for what. Accountability through ownership, not meetings.
3. Weekly Demos
Show, don't tell
Instead of talking about progress daily, teams show actual working features weekly. Real progress, not status reports.
4. Problem-Focused Hiring
Not task-followers
Hire people who can solve problems independently, not people who need daily direction. Trust your team.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Most founders think: daily standups = staying informed
Actually: daily standups = daily interruptions
Your developers don't need to report to you every morning.
They need uninterrupted time to solve hard problems.
Stop managing their time.
The Real Cost Of Your "Staying Informed" Tax
How many hours did your team spend in standups this week?
Multiply that by 52.
That's your annual "staying informed" tax.
Was it worth it?
What You Should Do Instead
Automate Your Standups with Scrumrobo
Stop wasting 60+ hours per week on synchronous standups. Scrumrobo automates your daily standups, letting your team post updates asynchronously on their own schedule.
What You Get:
- 2-minute async updates instead of 60-minute meetings
- AI-powered insights and summaries
- Automatic blocker detection
- Integration with Slack & Microsoft Teams
- Real-time visibility without meetings
Your Savings:
- ✅ Save $190K/year in meeting costs
- ✅ Give developers 60+ hours back per week
- ✅ Reduce context switching
- ✅ Increase shipping velocity
- ✅ Improve team satisfaction
"We saved 15 hours per week in meeting time and our team is happier. Scrumrobo gave us back our focus time." - Engineering Manager, 50-person startup
Ready to Transform Your Team Collaboration?
Join thousands of teams using Scrumrobo to streamline their Agile workflows, automate standups, and boost productivity.
Automated Standups
Save hours with AI-powered async standups
Real-Time Insights
Get actionable data-driven team insights
Team Collaboration
Enhance productivity with smart automation
Final Thought
That CEO who fired me for saying standups suck? His company is still doing 60-minute daily standups.
They've raised $20M and have 40 engineers.
They're burning roughly $300K/year on standups alone.
Don't be that CEO.
Trust your team. Give them autonomy. Use async updates. Ship faster.