Very interesting to learn that they place so many barriers to cross-team communications (when they create the 'start-up').
I see this has benefits in regard to focus and secrecy but.. find it a bit counter-intuitive and possibly counter-productive: if Employee X is not in the team, he won't be able to know that he could contribute his awesome Skill Y to that team...
Most employees think they have an awesome skill that could contribute to an exciting new project but fewer actually do. The last thing a new project needs is for staffing to be based on maneuvering and people calling in favors.
If X has skills that could be of use that will already be recognized he'll be brought inside the gates when necessary. If he has some amazing insight that only happens when he learns about the project, well there's always version 2.
My guess is that they found in practice, employees trying to contribute to another team's project do more harm (in the form of distraction, politicking, and low-quality contributions) than good.
