Since Thursday, unicorn startups ZipRecruiter, WeWork, Knotel, Getaround, and OneWeb have each laid off hundreds of employees, and over 20 startups in total have cut jobs.
Below are a few of the recent layoffs. Check out our Layoffs Tracker for a comprehensive, real-time report. If you’ve seen a layoff spreadsheet for any of these companies, please let us know!
- ZipRecruiter, the online hiring marketplace, laid off over 400 employees (39%). The company has seen its customers drastically slow down hiring and expects to miss revenue projections.
- 🌎 Santa Monica ∙ 👩💼 400 employees (39%) ∙ 🔗WSJ
- WeWork, the co-working company, laid off 250 employees. This follows a previous round of layoffs in November, but is supposedly unrelated to the coronavirus pandemic.
- 🌎 New York City ∙ 👩💼 250 employees ∙ 🔗Reuters
- Everlane, an e-commerce site for luxury clothing, laid off or furloughed 200 workers, primarily in their retail and backend operations functions.
- 🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩💼 200 employees ∙ 🔗WWD
- Knotel, which leases office space to companies, laid off 127 employees (30%) and furloughed an additional 68 employees (20%). The layoffs affected multiple departments and locations. Real estate startups like Knotel continue to suffer due to the coronavirus pandemic.
- Getaround, the car sharing startup, laid off 100 employees (25%). This follows a previous round of layoffs in January. Getaround is suffering from both the coronavirus pandemic as well as a pullback in funding from its main backer, Softbank.
- 🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩💼 100 employees (25%) ∙ 🔗BizJournals
- OneWeb, which builds satellites that provide internet access, filed for bankruptcy and announced layoffs. It said it had failed to secure further funding.
- 🌎 London ∙ 👩💼 Hundreds of employees ∙ 🔗BBC
- Zipcar, the rental car company, laid off 20% of staff. The travel industry continues to be disrupted by the coronavirus.
- 🌎 Boston ∙ 👩💼 Hundreds of employees (20%) ∙ 🔗BostonInno
- Restaurant365, which makes restaurant management software, laid off a “big chunk” of its 400 employees. It has seen a 75% decline in YoY sales.
- Textio, which helps companies write better job descriptions, laid off 30 employees (20%).
- 🌎 Seattle ∙ 👩💼 30 employees (20%) ∙ 🔗Geekwire
- B8ta, a retailer for consumer electronics and home goods, laid off over half of its corporate staff and furloughed its retail employees.
- 🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩💼 50% of corporate employees ∙ 🔗Retail Dive
- Pivot3, which develops hyperconverged infrastructure, laid off a significant portion of its 250 employees.
- DataRobot, which helps companies manage their machine learning models, significantly reduced headcount.
🌎 San Francisco, Denver ∙ 👩💼 400 employees (33%) ∙ 🖥 All departments
Sonder, which offers short-term apartment rentals, laid off or furloughed 400 employees (see link below for the list👇). Bookings are down 20% at the company’s 5,000 apartments, since people are no longer traveling due to the coronavirus. Sonder has raised $360 million and was most recently valued at over $1 billion.
See our live Layoffs Tracker for a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩💼 50 employees (75%) ∙ 🖥 All departments
Wonderschool, which helps people start their own home-based preschools or daycares, laid off 50 employees (75% of staff). Their childcare programs have been impacted by shelter-in-place orders, since families are now keeping their kids at home.
A list of affected employees, particularly in Engineering and Partnerships, is circulating on a crowdsourced spreadsheet for Coronavirus-related layoffs (see link below 👇).
See our live Layoffs Tracker for a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
Coronavirus-related tech layoffs continue to pile up this week, particularly in real estate and travel. Check out our Layoffs Tracker for a comprehensive, real-time report. If you’ve seen a layoff spreadsheet for any of these companies, please let us know!
Real estate
- Sonder, which offers short-term apartment rentals, laid off or furloughed 400 employees. Bookings are down 20% at the company’s 5,000 apartments.
- Zeus Living, which rents out furnished apartments on a monthly basis to business travelers, laid off 80 employees.
- The Guild, which offers short-term stays at luxury apartments, laid off 38 employees.
Travel
- TripActions, whose software helps companies manage corporate travel, laid off 300 workers. The layoffs primarily affected customer support, recruiting, and sales. Employees were notified of the layoff via a group Zoom call.
- 🌎 Palo Alto ∙ 👩💼 300 employees (25%) ∙ 🔗TechCrunch
- Cabin, a luxury sleeper-bus service, laid off an unknown (but likely small) number of employees.
Other industries
- Leafly, an online resource on cannabis, laid off 91 employees.
- 🌎 Seattle ∙ 👩💼 91 employees (50%) ∙ 🔗GeekWire
- Foodsby, which delivers restaurant food to office buildings, laid off 80 people. Demand is down since restaurants are closing and customers are no longer going into the office.
- 🌎Minneapolis ∙ 👩💼 80 employees (67%) ∙ 🔗Minne Inno
- Rangle, a development agency, initiated a temporary layoff for 78 staffers. Rangle’s clients are paring back spending due to the coronavirus pandemic.
- 🌎 Toronto ∙ 👩💼 78 employees (30%) ∙ 🔗BetaKit
- OutboundEngine, which creates marketing software for small businesses, laid off 52 employees.
- Wonderschool, which helps people start their own in-home preschools or daycares, laid off 50 employees. Shelter-in-place orders means that parents are keeping their kids at home.
- 🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩💼 50 employees (75%) ∙ 🔗EdSurge
- SpotHero, an app that helps people find parking spots, laid off an unknown number of employees. Urban parking isn’t a problem when people are staying at home.
- Eight Sleep, an online mattress retailer, laid off 20% of staff.
🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩💼 15 employees (17%) ∙ 🖥 Customer Success, Technical Writing
Triplebyte, the recruiting platform that connects engineering candidates with tech companies, laid off 15 employees (see link below for the list👇). Its talent manager and technical writing teams were eliminated. An ex-employee’s LinkedIn post says the layoffs are due to a “product shift,” so the move doesn’t appear to be coronavirus-related. Five months ago, founder and former YC partner Harj Taggar stepped down as CEO.
See our live Layoffs Tracker for a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
The first wave of tech layoffs due to the coronavirus pandemic have hit startups that facilitate physical space like homes and offices. Check out our Layoffs Tracker for a comprehensive, real-time report.
- Compass, the real estate brokerage, laid off 375 staffers. It has seen showings drop by 60% as people stay home during the pandemic.
- Convene, which provides flexible office space, laid off 150 people, citing fallout from the coronavirus.
- Remote Year, which facilitates remote work while traveling abroad, laid off 50 employees. Travel has been severely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
- Yonder, which helps identify disinformation online using AI, laid off 18 employees to increase runway.
If you’ve seen a layoff spreadsheet for any of these companies, please let us know!
🌎 Boston ∙ 👩💼 34 employees (29%) ∙ 🖥 All departments
Lola, a corporate travel management tool, laid off 34 employees (see link below for the list👇). This is one of the first startup layoffs directly related to the coronavirus. Lola has raised $82 million to date from Accel, General Catalyst, and CRV and now has 82 employees remaining.
See our live Layoffs Tracker for a real-time report of all startups that have done layoffs.
🌎 New York City ∙ 👩💼 75 employees (71%) ∙ 🖥 All departments
Managed By Q, a platform that facilitates office management services like cleaning, is laying off the vast majority of its staff as part of its sale from parent company WeWork to former competitor Eden. The layoff impacts 75+ people (see link below for the list👇).
🌎 San Francisco ∙ 👩💼 100 employees (100%) ∙ 🖥 All departments
Atrium, the hybrid law firm + tech startup, is shutting down and laying off all 100 employees (see link below for the list👇). Atrium says it failed to make legal services more cost-efficient with technology, a core part of the startup’s original thesis. Started by Twitch.tv co-founder Justin Kan, the startup had raised over $75 million from Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst.
🌎 San Francisco, Minneapolis ∙ 👩💼 70 employees (88%) ∙ 🖥 All departments
Brandless, a direct-to-consumer startup that makes affordable household products, is shutting down and laying off 88% of its staff (see link below for the list👇). 10 employees remain to finish the wind-down process. The company said its business model was unsustainable — a problem that has also plagued other DTC startups because competition for social media advertising has driven up customer acquisition costs. Brandless had raised $292 million, most notably from SoftBank.
