Well, I started at the small company I'm currently at around day 7300, where "source control" consisted of asking the one person who was in charge of all source code for a copy of the files you needed to work on, and then giving the updated files back. He'd write down the "checked out" files on a whiteboard to ensure that two people couldn't work on the same file at the same time.
The fact that I've gotten it to the point of using git with automated build and deployment is a small miracle in itself. Not everybody gets to start from a clean slate.
It's like a seed for crystal growth. Small company is exactly the best time to implement these things, because other employees will try to match the cultural norms and habits.