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
🌎 New York City ∙ 👩💼 100% of employees ∙ 🖥 All departments
UPDATE: More details have been reported by Commercial Observer.
The remainder of Managed By Q’s staff has been either laid off or furloughed by Eden, who purchased the company from WeWork in March. Like Eden, Managed By Q facilitates office management services like cleaning, but it appears Eden was more interested in picking up Managed By Q’s customers and assets rather than the team. See link below 👇for a list of 75+ people that have been affected, including those who were part of a separate round of layoffs one month ago.
🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩💼100 employees (33%) ∙ 🖥 All departments
Metromile, which sells car insurance based on actual miles driven, laid off 100 employees yesterday (see below link for list 👇). The layoffs occurred in San Francisco, Boston, and Tempe. Metromile cited “economic uncertainties as a result of COVID-19” as the reason for the layoffs. One would guess that the company’s revenues have plummeted since customers have been driving far fewer miles.
See our live Layoffs Tracker for a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
🌎 New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles ∙ 👩💼130 employees (25%) ∙ 🖥 Mostly business roles
Blueground, an apartment rental company, laid off 130 people (25%) last week. It joins many other real estate startups to conduct layoffs during the coronavirus pandemic. Recruiters — see below link for a partial list of laid-off employees 👇. The list spans people in business roles across New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
See our live Layoffs Tracker for a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
🌎 New York City ∙ 👩💼150 employees (18%) ∙ 🖥 All departments
Convene, which provides flexible office space, laid off 150 people last month. It had already closed all of its locations. If you’re recruiting in New York City, see below link 👇 for a partial list of ex-Convene product managers and engineers on the market. Coworking startups WeWork, Knotel, Industrious, and The Wing have also conducted layoffs in the past month in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
See our live Layoffs Tracker for a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
🌎 Salt Lake City ∙ 👩💼45 employees ∙ 🖥 Mostly business roles
Peek, a marketplace for travel activities, conducted a mass layoff in March, according to multiple LinkedIn posts by employees. If your company is recruiting, we now have a list of laid-off employees (see below👇). The list contains 25 ex-employees and skews towards business roles in their Salt Lake City office.
See our live Layoffs Tracker for a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
🌎 San Francisco, Salt Lake City ∙ 👩💼250 employees (30%) ∙ 🖥 All departments
Thumbtack, a marketplace for local services like cleaners and plumbers, laid off 250 employees last week. A company executive provided Layoffs.fyi with an opt-in list of affected employees (see below👇). The list suggests that sales, people, engineering, design, and analytics in San Francisco and Salt Lake City were most impacted. Due to shelter-in-place, Thumbtack’s business has fallen by over 50% in many of its markets.
See our live Layoffs Tracker for a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
Last week we tracked 50 startup layoffs affecting over 4,000 people. The post-Coronavirus tally has now crossed 10,000 employees laid off ☹️.
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!
- MindBody, which creates scheduling software for gyms, fitness studios, and spas, laid off or furloughed 700 employees. Nearly 95% of their customers are closed due to shelter-at-home orders.
- 🌎 San Luis Obispo ∙ 👩💼 700 employees (35%) ∙ 🔗Source
- Sojern, an ad-tech startup servicing travel companies, cut 300 employees, about half its staff. Travel advertising in general fell by as much as 90% in March.
- 🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩💼 300 employees (50%) ∙ 🔗Source
- AdRoll, an ad retargeting company, laid off 174 employees. According to an employee, the Salt Lake City and New York City offices were most affected.
- 🌎 Salt Lake City ∙ 👩💼 174 employees
- Velodyne Lidar, which designs sensor systems used in driverless cars for companies like Uber, laid off 140 employees. Workers say the company is using the coronavirus as an excuse when they’ve long been planning to transfer production overseas.
- 🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩💼 140 employees ∙ 🔗Source
- ThirdLove, a startup that sells bras and underwear, laid off 30% of its team. Other direct-to-consumer companies like Everlane and Brandless were struggling even before COVID-19 due to rising customer acquisition costs.
- 🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩💼 94 employees (35%) ∙ 🔗Source
- Industrious, a provider of flexible office space, laid off 20% of its staff (90 employees) and enacted furloughs or reduced hours for another 10%. The company joins a growing list of modern real estate companies that have conducted layoffs, including WeWork, Sonder, and Knotel.
- 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩💼 90 employees (20%) ∙ 🔗Source
- Arrive Logistics, a freight brokerage, cut 75 employees (7%) and furloughed another 35. It cited the coronavirus outbreak’s negative impact on freight markets.
- 🌎 Austin ∙ 👩💼 75 employees (7%) ∙ 🔗Source
- Bustle Digital Group, a media company that owns Bustle, Elite Daily, and Mic, laid off 24 employees. The entire staff of The Outline, a culture site, was let go as part of the layoff.
- 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩💼 24 employees ∙ 🔗Source
- The Wing, a co-working space for women, laid off half of its headquarters staff. It said it saw 95% of its revenue “disappear overnight.”
- 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩💼 50% of employees ∙ 🔗Source
🌎 Boston ∙ 👩💼59 employees ∙ 🖥 All departments
The Predictive Index, which makes talent optimization software, laid off 59 employees (if you’re recruiting, see link below for a list of departed employees 👇). A company executive cited the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. The Predictive Index raised $50 million from General Catalyst last year.
See our live Layoffs Tracker for a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
🌎 New York City ∙ 👩💼154 employees (22%) ∙ 🖥 All departments
ClassPass, a membership program for fitness classes, laid off 22% of employees and furloughed 31% more. Two crowdsourced spreadsheets of affected employees are actively being compiled (links below👇). The company has seen 95% of its revenue disappear now that most fitness studios and gyms are closed.
See our live Layoffs Tracker for a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
