Unicorn startups and notable consumer brands headlined the layoff news over the past couple of days. In the 4 weeks since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic, nearly 200 startups in total have conducted layoffs, affecting over 17,000 employees.
Below are a few of the recent layoffs. Check our Layoffs Tracker for a comprehensive report. If you’ve seen a layoff spreadsheet for any of these companies, please let us know so we can help the affected people!
- Toast, which makes software for restaurants, cut 50% of its staff, or around 1,300 employees. Its success is “tightly coupled” with the restaurant industry, which has seen sales decline by 80% in most cities. Toast raised money at a $5 billion valuation in February.
- 🌎 Boston ∙ 👩💼 1,300 employees (50%) ∙ 🔗Source
- Eventbrite, the ticketing and events website, laid off 45% of its employees. The company is highly dependent on live events, which have halted as a result of shelter-in-place. Its share price had fallen over 70% since mid-March.
- 🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩💼 500 employees (45%) ∙ 🔗Source
- ezCater, a corporate catering startup, laid off over 400 employees (44%). “We’re a company that feeds meetings, and meetings are not happening much right now,” the company said.
- 🌎 Boston ∙ 👩💼 400 employees (44%) ∙ 🔗Source
- Redfin, a real estate brokerage, laid off 7% of staff and either cut or furloughed 41% of its field agents. The company said that most agents would earn more from unemployment insurance than from Redfin. New listings, home tours, and home sales have all cooled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
- 🌎 Seattle ∙ 👩💼 236 employees (7%) ∙ 🔗Source
- Groupon, a marketplace for discounts from local businesses, conducted a round of layoffs and furloughs. The Chicago Tribune says that “significant portions” of its sales and sales operations teams were affected, while employee posts on LinkedIn suggests that the cuts spanned more broadly. Between 200-350 employees were laid off, according to these posts.
- 🌎 Chicago ∙ 👩💼 200-350 employees ∙ 🔗Source
- Newfront Insurance, a commercial insurance brokerage, laid off 94 employees. The startup has eschewed publicity but had grown headcount rapidly since founding in 2017.
- 🌎 San Francisco∙ 👩💼 94 employees ∙ 🔗Source
- Away, a direct-to-consumer maker of luggage and travel accessories, furloughed about half of its team and laid off an additional 10% (60 employees). Sales of its products have fallen by more than 90% over the past few weeks, since people are not traveling.
- 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩💼 60 employees (10%) ∙ 🔗Source
- Lever, which makes applicant tracking software, laid off 40% of its staff, according to a laid-off employee. The economic impact of COVID-19 has slowed down hiring (and as we know, increased the pace of layoffs). ZipRecruiter, another recruiting site, also held recent layoffs.
- 🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩💼 40% of employees
- Zola, a website for creating wedding registries, laid off 20% of its team. Due to social distancing measures, couples have been delaying their weddings en masse.
- 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩💼 20% of employees ∙ 🔗Source