Etsy slashes almost a quarter of its staff • Hacker News Board

Re: Etsy slashes almost a quarter of its staff

#11

Post by acomjean » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 5:18 PM UTC

k3oni wrote: post #2

Etsy should go back at what they did initially and support the craftsmen instead of the china imports, maybe that would help bring them back on track.

Probably too late as going back would likely reduce revenues. Handcrafted goods are expensive and slow and hard to police the sellers.

Its a shame, because it was such a good idea to have a marketplace for people to sell stuff without the pain of setting up an online website/shop. Though some independents are now are using the squarespace/shoppify....etc.

Re: Etsy slashes almost a quarter of its staff

#12

Post by LoSboccacc » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 5:20 PM UTC

learc83 wrote: post #8

I remember hearing that Etsy had an unusually large number of women working on the development team. I wonder how this layoff is going to affect that? Will they keep up their diversity initiatives, or do they consider that more of a luxury? I also read that they were also hiring a lot of bootcamp grads. It would be interesting to see the percentage of layoffs coming from bootcamps.

> Will they keep up their diversity initiatives, or do they consider that more of a luxury?

if they need to cut cost, they should start firing males, if anything, right?

Re: Etsy slashes almost a quarter of its staff

#13

Post by LoSboccacc » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 5:22 PM UTC

adventured wrote: post #6

madamelic wrote: post #3

This seems like the 'bubble' deflating. Not so much a bang , more of a fizzle as "the big kids" come in and cut deeply. That and investors keeping out of seed-stage funding because it has gotten so bloated by everyone wanting their own startup. I've seen Genius, Etsy, Uber... etc. It seems like a lot more startups are getting shook up and cut down.

Etsy looks to be just fine. Sales grew 33% for 2016 vs 2015. Their operating loss is down to a very small trickle at $2m for the latest quarter. To go with $275m in cash. They appear to have a very nice business that's trading for a reasonable four times sales and likely heading toward profitability. What's the problem? Cutting bloat is exactly what they should be doing, it'll drive them to profitability faster.

it's still in a very precarious position - if they open too much to resellers and large manufacturers people will go back to the more convenient alternative - amazon.

Re: Etsy slashes almost a quarter of its staff

#14

Post by johnbellone » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 5:26 PM UTC

I didn't see any numbers on what departments were the most affected, but to my friends at Etsy looking for roles in automation/infrastructure engineering please reach out!

Re: Etsy slashes almost a quarter of its staff

#15

Post by strict9 » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 5:30 PM UTC

Will echo others regarding China imports, but one last hope to bring me back to their marketplace is a revamp of the review system.

After spending thousands of dollars on furniture, waiting a month for the guy to make it, and another two weeks to ship, I had maybe a few days to leave a review for something I spent a lot of money on. With this policy, reviews are for first impressions only. And I won't be coming back.

Maybe it's in place to prevent review extortion, but a time limit (especially for goods made on demand) isn't the way to do it.

Re: Etsy slashes almost a quarter of its staff

#16

Post by geofft » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 5:32 PM UTC

learc83 wrote: post #8

I remember hearing that Etsy had an unusually large number of women working on the development team. I wonder how this layoff is going to affect that? Will they keep up their diversity initiatives, or do they consider that more of a luxury? I also read that they were also hiring a lot of bootcamp grads. It would be interesting to see the percentage of layoffs coming from bootcamps.

The first round of layoffs included the CEO and the CTO, both men. Anecdotally (as someone who received a job offer right before the layoffs, and asked around about what it affected) I heard that round included a lot of middle management; at the least they laid off my manager-to-be and his manager, both men, and did not lay off any individual contributors on the team I was interviewing for, which was roughly gender-balanced. I have no information about today's layoffs.

I would personally argue that it's a lot more common of a luxury to promote okay-but-not-great men into management instead of letting them go, and a company motivated by capitalist concerns should focus more on eliminating those sinecures than eliminating bootcamp grads, who often can't command a high salary anyway. But then again, Etsy did cancel their entire summer internship program with two weeks' notice, which can't have saved them much money at all, so I'm not sure how responsible/rational they're being in their capitalist motivations.

Re: Etsy slashes almost a quarter of its staff

#17

Post by geofft » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 5:34 PM UTC

LoSboccacc wrote: post #12

learc83 wrote: post #8

I remember hearing that Etsy had an unusually large number of women working on the development team. I wonder how this layoff is going to affect that? Will they keep up their diversity initiatives, or do they consider that more of a luxury? I also read that they were also hiring a lot of bootcamp grads. It would be interesting to see the percentage of layoffs coming from bootcamps.

> Will they keep up their diversity initiatives, or do they consider that more of a luxury? if they need to cut cost, they should start firing males, if anything, right?

Yes. This is economically rational, as Alan Greenspan pointed out in 1983:

> ... the senior staff, including Miss Eickhoff, Judith Mackey and Lucille Wu, is mostly female. Mr. Greenspan explains the gender bias with the free-market pragmatism that has become his hallmark: "I always valued men and women equally, and I found that because others did not, good women economists were cheaper than men. Hiring women does two things: It gives us better quality work for less money, and it raises the market value of women."

Re: Etsy slashes almost a quarter of its staff

#18

Post by treehau5 » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 5:35 PM UTC

LoSboccacc wrote: post #13

adventured wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Etsy looks to be just fine. Sales grew 33% for 2016 vs 2015. Their operating loss is down to a very small trickle at $2m for the latest quarter. To go with $275m in cash. They appear to have a very nice business that's trading for a reasonable four times sales and likely heading toward profitability. What's the problem? Cutting bloat is exactly what they should be doing, it'll drive them to profitability faster.

it's still in a very precarious position - if they open too much to resellers and large manufacturers people will go back to the more convenient alternative - amazon.

More convenient, better experience, better search, better customer support, better shipping, more reviews, etc. etc.

I know this is a dead horse here but Etsy needs to go back to it's roots or die. I would use eBay or alibaba before Etsy if they want to sell cheaply manufactured goods.

Re: Etsy slashes almost a quarter of its staff

#19

Post by 086421357909764 » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 5:41 PM UTC

geofft wrote: post #17

LoSboccacc wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Will they keep up their diversity initiatives, or do they consider that more of a luxury? if they need to cut cost, they should start firing males, if anything, right?

Yes. This is economically rational, as Alan Greenspan pointed out in 1983: > ... the senior staff, including Miss Eickhoff, Judith Mackey and Lucille Wu, is mostly female. Mr. Greenspan explains the gender bias with the free-market pragmatism that has become his hallmark: "I always valued men and women equally, and I found that because others did not, good women economists were cheaper than men. Hiring women does two…

By that statement though, you're implying that men and women aren't paid equally within Etsy. Which is against the whole of diversity and equal pay for equal work campaign isn't it?

Re: Etsy slashes almost a quarter of its staff

#20

Post by timdeneau » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 6:02 PM UTC

strict9 wrote: post #15

Will echo others regarding China imports, but one last hope to bring me back to their marketplace is a revamp of the review system. After spending thousands of dollars on furniture, waiting a month for the guy to make it, and another two weeks to ship, I had maybe a few days to leave a review for something I spent a lot of money on. With this policy, reviews are for first impressions only. And I won't be coming back.…

They used to email prompt you for reviews, or prompt you for reviews whenever you signed in. Now they don’t do either, and even if I manually check the backlog of orders, the review time windows have all expired. So I never review anything anymore.

Seems like a strange decision. I don’t understand how that is helping buyers or sellers.