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Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

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Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#21

Post by bearjaws »

_fat_santa wrote: post #3

> The cloud communications software builder has been striving for profitability in 2023, and the restructuring plan aims to improve operating margins, create a better selling capacity and reduce operating costs. If you look at all the layoffs we had this year, the vast majority are by companies that are VC funded and unprofitable. It would be a scary time to work for a VC backed company, because you're one missed fun…

How much did Twilio grow from 2020-2022?

Over 200%: from 2,800 staff to 8,510 ...

This means this 11% reduction leaves them at... 292% growth since 2020, while its not amazing news, this is a small reduction given the growth they've had.

These layoffs were inevitable IMO, everyone doubled their team (or more!) and then asked where the money was going to come from.

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#22

Post by duxup »

saos wrote: post #8

Another company carelessly overhiring. OR maybe using opportunity to do some trimming? edit: Where does one check hiring metrics for company before accepting contract?

What even causes "over hiring"?

People just building their resume for things like "managed a department of 200 people" ?

Otherwise over hiring sounds like a pain in the ass to deal with.

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#23

Post by Hamuko »

_fat_santa wrote: post #3

> The cloud communications software builder has been striving for profitability in 2023, and the restructuring plan aims to improve operating margins, create a better selling capacity and reduce operating costs. If you look at all the layoffs we had this year, the vast majority are by companies that are VC funded and unprofitable. It would be a scary time to work for a VC backed company, because you're one missed fun…

>It would be a scary time to work for a VC backed company, because you're one missed funding round away from getting kicked to the curb, and VC's seem to be clutching the funds in this economy.

VC-backed companies that aren't profitable are risky places to work for anyways. At least in these layoffs, the whole company doesn't go bust.

But if you work at a VC-backed company, and you don't feel essential, then maybe keep your resume updated.

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#24

Post by bearjaws »

CharlieDigital wrote: post #14
saos wrote: post #8

Another company carelessly overhiring. OR maybe using opportunity to do some trimming? edit: Where does one check hiring metrics for company before accepting contract?

> Where does one check hiring metrics for company before accepting contract? LinkedIn company pages have those stats for Premium members. Twilio is showing -- what do you know -- 13% headcount growth over the last 6 months and a median tenure of 1.3 years.

Nasdaq shows their employment growth at 290% over the last 30 months. Absolutely wild.

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#25

Post by gnicholas »

To what extent do companies announce layoffs (that they were preparing to do already) on the heels of other companies announcing layoffs? That way it becomes less memorable that 'Company X laid off 11% of their employees' and instead people remember that 'a few companies laid off some people last week'.

Perhaps this is too difficult to tweak the timing on, particularly at public companies. But at the very least, I'm sure some of the Twilio execs were glad to hear about Patreon's layoff yesterday.

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#27

Post by tmpz22 »

bearjaws wrote: post #21
_fat_santa wrote: post #3

> The cloud communications software builder has been striving for profitability in 2023, and the restructuring plan aims to improve operating margins, create a better selling capacity and reduce operating costs. If you look at all the layoffs we had this year, the vast majority are by companies that are VC funded and unprofitable. It would be a scary time to work for a VC backed company, because you're one missed fun…

How much did Twilio grow from 2020-2022? Over 200%: from 2,800 staff to 8,510 ... This means this 11% reduction leaves them at... 292% growth since 2020, while its not amazing news, this is a small reduction given the growth they've had. These layoffs were inevitable IMO, everyone doubled their team (or more!) and then asked where the money was going to come from.

How the **CK are these companies training and onboarding and managing all these new hires in such short a time frames?

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#29

Post by pc86 »

dangus wrote: post #5
_fat_santa wrote: post #3

> The cloud communications software builder has been striving for profitability in 2023, and the restructuring plan aims to improve operating margins, create a better selling capacity and reduce operating costs. If you look at all the layoffs we had this year, the vast majority are by companies that are VC funded and unprofitable. It would be a scary time to work for a VC backed company, because you're one missed fun…

The real problem in my mind is that it's difficult for employees to judge whether a company is making disciplined hires in the first place. The ballpark method I've been using has been to ask for the ARR and divide that number by the employee count. I don't know that this is a real business indicator, but it seems to me that the closer that number is to a workable salary, the better. Maybe all tech startups are all u…

Startups are by definition young companies growing extremely fast. Never having had formal layoffs for young companies experiencing high growth should not be something particularly surprising.

Re: Twilio to lay off 11% of workforce

#30

Post by fche »

anonym29 wrote: post #18

Anyone else read the letter from the CEO where they claim that the layoffs "were carried out through an Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression lens"? That's verbatim from the actual PDF, in case anyone was curious ( https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001447669/5c6aa73... ) Page 6, under the heading "How did we decide which roles would be impacted". I wonder what race they deliberately targeted for these layoffs, with la…

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