What Indiana football taught me about running a business

Does your business only need 5 people?

This month, I did the unbelievable.

I went with my wife and son to cheer on her college alma mater, the Indiana Hoosiers, as they played in the college football semifinal in Atlanta.

They won. Convincingly.

Then this week I watched that same Indiana team win the national football championship.

You see, Indiana is a proverbial football doormat. They were historically one of the worst teams in all of college football.

Then they got the right coach and, within two years, won the most improbable of championships.

Funny, too, because Indiana has always been viewed as a "basketball" school.

Speaking of basketball, that's the next sports season I like to follow. I'm even coaching my son's basketball team right now.

So I've been thinking about basketball a lot lately.

Enough that I created an analogy: running a small business is a lot like putting together a basketball team.

You can build a strong business with five people if you have them in the right roles and work with A-Players.

Let me carry through the analogy and see if you agree.

THE SMALL BUSINESS STARTING FIVE

You (The Owner/Visionary) - Point Guard

You run the offense. You see the whole court. You make the decisions and set the plays.

This role cannot be replaced by AI. It shouldn't be. You're the one with the vision, the one who knows where this thing is going.

Technical Person - Center

This is your middle. The person who holds down the technical infrastructure, the stuff that actually has to work.

AI augments this role beautifully - handles documentation, speeds up debugging, automates the repetitive stuff. But it doesn't replace the judgment calls, the architecture decisions, the "should we even build this?" moments.

People Person - Small Forward

Client relationships. Team culture. The human connection that AI literally cannot do.

This is your "meaning maker" - the person who makes other people feel seen, heard, valued. The one who turns a transaction into a relationship.

No chatbot is replacing this.

Project Person - Power Forward

Gets stuff done. Keeps things moving. Executes.

Here's where AI helps the MOST. All that busy work - status updates, timeline tracking, resource allocation - AI can handle huge chunks of it.

One great project person armed with AI tools? Worth three mediocre ones without.

Sales/Marketing Person - Shooting Guard

Puts points on the board. Brings in the revenue.

AI helps with research, outreach, content creation, lead qualification. But closing? That's still human. That's still about reading the room, sensing hesitation, knowing when to push and when to back off.

HERE'S WHERE IT GETS INTERESTING

The Bench = AI tools.

They come in, do specific jobs, rotate out when needed. You don't need 15 humans on the bench anymore.

AI IS the bench.

Your Starting Five never comes out - these are your A-players who play all 48 minutes. The rest is situational.

Championship teams are built, not bought. You're assembling the right people, not just hiring bodies to fill seats.

And here's the economic piece that makes this work: The Salary cap = your margin.

Big agencies blow their cap on B-players and bench warmers. You spend yours on A-players only.

THE INSIGHT THIS UNLOCKS

A lot of boutique agencies have 15 people and maybe 3-4 A-players.

The rest are role players, bench warmers, or people you keep because firing is hard and you need someone to answer emails.

The new possibility? You only have A-players. Five of them. AI handles everything else.

That's not downsizing.

That's optimization.

And right now - with the talent flood from recent layoffs combined with AI handling the grunt work - you can actually BUILD this starting five for the first time ever.

You might even be able to afford the A-players because you're not paying for the other ten roles.

You can give them the tools (AI) that make them 3x more effective than they'd be anywhere else.

You can build something lean, profitable, and actually enjoyable to run.

What do you think of this analogy?

A QUICK NOTE

I've been publishing more on YouTube lately, and the comments are rolling in. If you haven't checked out the channel recently, give it a look: https://www.youtube.com/@jeffalytics

Would love to hear what you think.

To Your AI-First Success,

Jeff Sauer

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