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Brex Layoffs

brex.com

21–30 of 161 posts

Re: Brex Layoffs

#21
post #14

Kind of saw that coming. The salaries at Brex were insane.

Higher than FAANG? Or whatever is the acronym today.

At some point (not sure if this is still the case) you could choose between all salary or a mix of salary and options. The total comp in either case was ~450k for a senior dev. So we are talking Netflix-level salaries for a startup.

Re: Brex Layoffs

#23
post #8

I like that they shared publicly the severance package (I missed that in a company before, the severance package was only available to the ones laid off, and you wouldn't even know if you got the same as your colleagues). And the package itself seems alright too (and sensible, for example: the laid off can keep their laptops. What would company do with almost 300 extra laptops?). Time of the lay off also not too bad…

The laptop thing is usually less about clawing back property and more about preventing the laptop, potentially with customer PII and source code and other stuff on it, ending up sold on ebay or left laying around as a personal device to be eventually lost at an airport 3 years later, and so on. They take them back, wipe them, then either resell them to a reseller or reissue them to other employees etc.

Re: Brex Layoffs

#24
post #19

Company was burning $17m per month with less than $300m in revenue... while growing at a slower rate than ramp.com . simply unsustainable.

What am I not understanding about your comment, 300m is 25m per month, so that sounds very profitable?

They spend every cent of the revenue they made AND the extra $17m each month.

Re: Brex Layoffs

#25
post #19

Company was burning $17m per month with less than $300m in revenue... while growing at a slower rate than ramp.com . simply unsustainable.

What am I not understanding about your comment, 300m is 25m per month, so that sounds very profitable?

[deleted]

Re: Brex Layoffs

#26
It seems like companies are really tightening the screws further this year. When I got into this industry I figured the good times would roll for about 10 years, and then it would be about time for another career change. "Make hay while the sun is shining", as they say. I'm right around that 10th year, and I think that prediction was accurate.

Re: Brex Layoffs

#28
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Higher than FAANG? Or whatever is the acronym today.

Higher than MSFT for sure - but not Netflix or Google: https://www.levels.fyi/companies/brex/salaries/software-engi...

$263.42K for an entry level position, wow.

Re: Brex Layoffs

#29
post #8

I like that they shared publicly the severance package (I missed that in a company before, the severance package was only available to the ones laid off, and you wouldn't even know if you got the same as your colleagues). And the package itself seems alright too (and sensible, for example: the laid off can keep their laptops. What would company do with almost 300 extra laptops?). Time of the lay off also not too bad…

The laptop thing is usually less about clawing back property and more about preventing the laptop, potentially with customer PII and source code and other stuff on it, ending up sold on ebay or left laying around as a personal device to be eventually lost at an airport 3 years later, and so on. They take them back, wipe them, then either resell them to a reseller or reissue them to other employees etc.

Indeed, the financial services firm I contribute at is required to remotely lock and wipe laptops when offboarding for compliance purposes, and that is somewhat consistent with the other FIs I’ve seen the inside of. How effective this is depends on an org's MDM story (people, process, controls).

Re: Brex Layoffs

#30
20% of the company

Given how it sounds like Brex is doing, they're likely going to need to cut again. This isn't deep enough to really solve any systemic or structural problems. It will likely work though if the product vision and execution are on point and they just need more runway/less bloat.

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