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Bolt announces layoffs

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Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#31

Post by kleinsch »

I was in the middle of an interview loop with Bolt mid-Apr, they canceled my onsite so they could (supposedly) prioritize onboarding people they'd already hired. Dodged a bullet there. Also did calls with Coinbase, Uber, and Twitter, who all now have hiring freezes.

Boggles my mind how companies flip on a dime between "hire as fast as possible" and "the sky is falling, we're laying people off." In the case of Bolt and Twitter, there were material changes (lawsuit from major customer, Elon Musk) but the others are just scared about the economy.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#32

Post by Permit »

upupandup wrote: post #14
kadomony wrote: post #3

Waiting for Ryan’s tweet storm eagerly to see how blame is shifted to VC and Stripe.

Thanks to him, lot of people in the industry are now a bit wiser and more careful while others simp for the establishment because they seek to benefit, are benefiting (maybe in the minds of some, they think they are reading this board and looking at profiles of users who simp or attack them?) When he outed YC, Sequoia Capital and New York Times, I felt uneasy because I knew there would be blowbacks.

The only thing he "outed" was his inability to read timestamps: https://twitter.com/theryanking/status/1485784882173255680

He claimed Stripe copied his blog post, but when you click the links you'll see that Stripe's post was submitted earlier than his! This was his big "WHO WANTS PROOF?" reveal. He does not walk away from this looking good.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#33

Post by nrmitchi »

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 are taking advantage of any excuse that isn't "ya we hired way to many people so that we could say we are bigger than Fast".

Bolt apparently raised $355 million 4 months ago. If they are having cash problems, or are concerned about not having enough runway, I don't believe for a second that any magnitude of layoffs will help them.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#35

Post by JumpCrisscross »

Lapz wrote: post #2

The founder also encouraged employees to take on what was effectively personal debt at an ~11B valuation when they only did $5.2M in Q1…

> founder also encouraged employees to take on what was effectively personal debt

Do we have evidence to this encouragement?

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#36

Post by nklende »

Lapz wrote: post #2

The founder also encouraged employees to take on what was effectively personal debt at an ~11B valuation when they only did $5.2M in Q1…

I had a smaller YC company pitch me something like this as an option for my stock comp - an RSA (restricted stock agreement, or "founder's stock"), where I put up all the cash up front, paid a big income tax bill in the first year, but then upside was all capital gains. I would technically own the stock but I had to sell it back for nothing if I left before it vested.

Turned out I left very early because the company wasn't doing great, in the current climate I think they're probably default-dead. All that cash is just gone.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#37

Post by aldebran »

zucked wrote: post #29
aldebran wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edit: I'm going to leave the below message but wanted to acknowledge that OP meant that the message could be more authentic. I misread. How is this authentic? I was reading through and thinking how it's mincing words and making it sound like everyone is going to feel the same pain. "This is one of the hardest messages I’ve ever had to send." Bad start. Why do CEOs make this about them? "Unfortunately, this includes r…

You missed the takeaway of OP's message - OP is saying that the message, as it was broadcast, was not authentic because it was a long, meandering explanation, burying the part where people are losing their jobs in the last sentence of the third paragraph.

I should read more closely. :)

Thank you!

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#38

Post by JumpCrisscross »

scarface74 wrote: post #27
dburn1169 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when they only did $5.2M in Q1… This is insane to me. I work at a startup with a similar valuation and we bring in almost double that amount of revenue a week... and I think we're overvalued.

I never cease to be amazed at how people value companies based on revenue and not profit. Revenue without profit numbers tell you nothing about how well the company is doing.

> how people value companies based on revenue and not profit

Profit is a closer abstraction to cash flows (i.e. to the investor) than revenue, but it's still an abstraction. Investors looking at revenues and unit economics can sometimes--often--predict future profits and discount backwards, in the same way that a value investor can look at a company's profits and sometimes--less often, frankly--predict future cash flows from dividends or M&A and then discount backwards.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#39

Post by dburn1169 »

scarface74 wrote: post #27
dburn1169 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> when they only did $5.2M in Q1… This is insane to me. I work at a startup with a similar valuation and we bring in almost double that amount of revenue a week... and I think we're overvalued.

I never cease to be amazed at how people value companies based on revenue and not profit. Revenue without profit numbers tell you nothing about how well the company is doing.

I'm not valuing my company solely by revenue, but it's easier to compare the values of startups by their revenues as a good chunk of startups are focused on growth and not profit - and thus aren't yet profitable. Will that start to change with the current macro environment? Probably. Was only trying to point out how out of wack valuations have gotten.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#40

Post by berberous »

upupandup wrote: post #18
Lapz wrote: post #2

The founder also encouraged employees to take on what was effectively personal debt at an ~11B valuation when they only did $5.2M in Q1…

> There IS risk to the employee; they now have a real loan outstanding and 100% personal recourse, so if the common stock becomes less than exercise price, their personal assets are on the hook https://twitter.com/theryanking/status/1493390184897032201 HOLY CRAP. How is this even legal???

It was an option, not a requirement. There are pros/cons to doing it, but it was ultimately the employee’s decision. I’m sure the risks were well disclosed. The issue is >50% of employees don’t understand any of it, no matter how well explained and disclosed.
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