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Bolt announces layoffs

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Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#141

Post by puranjay »

FooBarBizBazz wrote: post #134
puranjay wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember that debt fuelled stock buybacks were a huge reason for propping up stock prices for these companies as well. Now that cheap debt is off the table, that buyback strategy will have diminishing impact as well, forcing companies to find other ways to keep stock up (such as cutting costs)

I don't think VC-backed startups typically do stock buybacks? That's more of a Fortune 500 thing, AFAIK. "Startups" (of whatever size) are always concerned about the next funding round; I don't think they're going to burn runway to prop up the share price. It's companies like GE and IBM that do that, AFAIK.

I was referring to the OP’s comment that established publicly traded tech companies too will be under pressure to keep the stock price up and thus, aren’t immune to layoffs

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#142

Post by upupandup »

beambot wrote: post #107
silentsea90 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10M a week = ~500M a year. 10B valuation. wow. Where is that?

20x Price-to-Sales (P/S) multiple on trailing-twelve-month (TTM) revenues is actually on high-end of of sub-$20B SaaS right now -- it's just the new reality. Examples from public markets: Cloudflare ($NET) TTM revenue is $0.73B and $16.9B marketcap (23x P/S). DocuSign ($DOCU) TTM revenue is $2.1B with $15.5B marketcap (7.3x P/S). UIPath ($PATH) TTM revenue is $0.9B with $9B marketcap (10x P/S). Okta ($OKTA) TTM reven…

> it's just the new reality

I wonder whether they are prepared for the next reality where these multiples is no longer sustainable.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#143

Post by cr3ative »

throwaabolt wrote: post #81

I am one of those let go today. It's especially bad, because they seem to have messed up the invite templates. I received one to the Town Hall meeting, even before Majus letter was published, only to get the invitation cancelled and receive and invitation to "Bolt Restructuring". What an emotional rollercoaster. Extremely anxious about the future, as this is my first time being laid off, especially in the current mar…

Sorry to hear this, I hope everything works out for you.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#144

Post by fdgsdfogijq »

phphphphp wrote: post #136

Can you share more about the stock option loan program? If it is what it sounds like, that program is unconscionable insanity and whoever is encouraging employees to engage with it is setting employees up for a world of hurt.

Half of the employees participated

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#145

Post by nathanaldensr »

lr4444lr wrote: post #122
nrmitchi wrote: post #33

First of all, there is no mention of what percentage of their workforce is being directly effected by this. I suspect it is not small. That aside, I fail to see this as anything other than this "company" taking advantage of the current environment to execute layoffs in a way that lets them blame "the market" rather than their own short-comings. We saw this in March 2020 as well. They overhired for the hype, and now a…

Even if this is true, we're looking at a tight money policy and a bear market in tech broadly with no end in sight. Pre-profit companies need to protect their hides, and I expect to see such reflected in layoffs and attrition.

"Pre-profit companies" LOL. So that's what they're calling them nowadays?

Talk about euphemisms...

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#146

Post by matwood »

ushakov wrote: post #89
fdgsdfogijq wrote: post #49

Rumors going around on blind (posted by bolt employees) that over the course of a few rounds of layoffs it will be 30-50% of the total workforce. A lot of the initial layoff are software engineers. Apparently they only have 12-18 months of runway, and need to effectively double that. Current revenue is 40M. I guess this is the beginning of the tech washout. clings to large tech company job EDIT: 33% layoff today

they raised $355M this year and like $600M last year https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/bolt-5/company_finan... how can a company burn money that quickly so they end up with only 12-18 months of runway?

I shaved a bit off our AWS bill and my CFO at the time asked if it was worth my time. I asked him if he knew how you get a huge AWS bill with no idea how to fix? A little bit at a time.

People get lazy because things seem good and let questionable hires and other expenses slide by because why not, there's plenty of money.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#147

Post by colinmhayes »

puranjay wrote: post #76
unicornmama wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Large technology companies won’t hesitate to layoff employees to protect their stock price.

Remember that debt fuelled stock buybacks were a huge reason for propping up stock prices for these companies as well. Now that cheap debt is off the table, that buyback strategy will have diminishing impact as well, forcing companies to find other ways to keep stock up (such as cutting costs)

I mean the established big tech companies are sitting on mountains of cash. I suspect they’ll start ramping up buybacks even more aggressively due to what they see as undervalued equity.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#148

Post by silax »

ProAm wrote: post #109
silax wrote: post #64

The best thing they could do at this point is give employees and investors their remaining cash. They won't, but I bet they'll wish they did.

Why? Business will continue, they are just trimming fat (excessively) based on what the market is doing. Next 2 years might be rough, especially for ecommerce.

In general, I agree. But for Bolt in particular- they have a 2500x ARR multiple, and their top customer is suing them for "utterly failing to deliver on its promises" due to incompetence in software and lying about the details of their relationship, and the general sentiment of the company and founder is that of fraud, and the direct competitor just went out of business for very similar reasons, and the TAM of the market is less than they've raised in VC- I'd say the employees and investors can do greater things with the remaining capital.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#149

Post by aleksiy123 »

unicornmama wrote: post #69
fdgsdfogijq wrote: post #49

Rumors going around on blind (posted by bolt employees) that over the course of a few rounds of layoffs it will be 30-50% of the total workforce. A lot of the initial layoff are software engineers. Apparently they only have 12-18 months of runway, and need to effectively double that. Current revenue is 40M. I guess this is the beginning of the tech washout. clings to large tech company job EDIT: 33% layoff today

Large technology companies won’t hesitate to layoff employees to protect their stock price.

I'm genuinely curious. Is there any other options? By this point it's too late, right? And even if they played it safe there is always some risk.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#150

Post by bko »

nrmitchi wrote: post #33

First of all, there is no mention of what percentage of their workforce is being directly effected by this. I suspect it is not small. That aside, I fail to see this as anything other than this "company" taking advantage of the current environment to execute layoffs in a way that lets them blame "the market" rather than their own short-comings. We saw this in March 2020 as well. They overhired for the hype, and now a…

Why do you need an excuse to perform layoffs? Sometimes companies over-hire or hire the wrong people. Other times they scale back certain efforts and are left with people that don't fit into the organization anymore. I feel sorry for the people, but layoffs are part of a normal process and with economic downturn we're facing, that will almost certainly impact their lines of credit and fundraising. So the prudent action would be to lay people off.
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