Carta lays off 10% of the workforce • Hacker News Board

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#31

Post by danielvaughn » Wed, Jan 11, 2023, 5:58 PM UTC

kaesar14 wrote: post #25

danwee wrote: post #16

I always wondered how American companies lay off European employees (when the companies have branches in European countries). Usually, in Europe, you cannot just fire someone without a justified reason (and no, saving costs is not a justified reason). Such reason are usually: the employee did something illegal (data leaks, sell internal information, etc.) or something related to harassing other employees. Even with b…

How is saving costs not a justifiable reason? Maybe all of this is why European employees have such a hard time finding US salaries.

That’s the most plausible reason I’ve heard so far tbh. I don’t know much about Europe but I’ve always been curious about the dismal salaries over there.

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#32

Post by henning » Wed, Jan 11, 2023, 5:58 PM UTC

Carta always talks about how it imagines itself as a sports team. When the team is doing badly, don't they usually fire the head coach? I guess they aren't willing to take the analogy that far, they just like the bit about expecting everyone to be a superstar.

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#33

Post by jack_riminton » Wed, Jan 11, 2023, 5:58 PM UTC

danwee wrote: post #16

I always wondered how American companies lay off European employees (when the companies have branches in European countries). Usually, in Europe, you cannot just fire someone without a justified reason (and no, saving costs is not a justified reason). Such reason are usually: the employee did something illegal (data leaks, sell internal information, etc.) or something related to harassing other employees. Even with b…

If the company cannot afford the post, then you're made redundant. So yes you can quite easily get rid of people to save costs.

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#34

Post by dilyevsky » Wed, Jan 11, 2023, 5:58 PM UTC

adrr wrote: post #19

For the RSUs. Is there a buy-back program for shares? Taxes on these far out weigh the benefit. Carta with $150m of revenue is not worth over $1B and is closer to $500m if it went public right now. Use other fintechs that went public for comparison like Robinhood, Coinbase, Toast etc.

I could be wrong but carta should have much better margins than the two you mentioned so it should be closer to traditional 7-10x saas multiplier. Sometimes there are tender offers for rsus but usually you have to wait for trigger event, I don’t think RSUs are worse than say NSOs

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#35

Post by aerojoe23 » Wed, Jan 11, 2023, 5:59 PM UTC

baggy_trough wrote: post #22

danwee wrote: post #16

I always wondered how American companies lay off European employees (when the companies have branches in European countries). Usually, in Europe, you cannot just fire someone without a justified reason (and no, saving costs is not a justified reason). Such reason are usually: the employee did something illegal (data leaks, sell internal information, etc.) or something related to harassing other employees. Even with b…

How can "we don't have the money to pay you" not be a justified reason?

What about "We have the money to pay you but we don't want to anymore"?

No idea about this case. But often it seems they're cutting cost because they think they can, not because they have to.

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#36

Post by umeshunni » Wed, Jan 11, 2023, 5:59 PM UTC

adrr wrote: post #19

For the RSUs. Is there a buy-back program for shares? Taxes on these far out weigh the benefit. Carta with $150m of revenue is not worth over $1B and is closer to $500m if it went public right now. Use other fintechs that went public for comparison like Robinhood, Coinbase, Toast etc.

Most RSUs are double trigger and don't trigger taxes till an actual liquidity event

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#37

Post by theSIRius » Wed, Jan 11, 2023, 5:59 PM UTC

baggy_trough wrote: post #22

danwee wrote: post #16

I always wondered how American companies lay off European employees (when the companies have branches in European countries). Usually, in Europe, you cannot just fire someone without a justified reason (and no, saving costs is not a justified reason). Such reason are usually: the employee did something illegal (data leaks, sell internal information, etc.) or something related to harassing other employees. Even with b…

How can "we don't have the money to pay you" not be a justified reason?

Employee protection. Just because the management could not balance the sheet is not a good enough reason employees should suffer the consequences. At least in theory.

But if the company is shutting down a whole team without replacement, the employees should still get the option to relocate into another role. They can be let go only after that fails.

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#38

Post by all2 » Wed, Jan 11, 2023, 6:01 PM UTC

qcic wrote: post #20

nvdnadj92 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

better than nothing, in my opinion. At least they were considered.

this is worth, like $500. would have looked better if they didn't even have this at all.

I'd consider this a blessing, tbh. Just the fact that there's an attorney on call that I can ask questions of, and I can talk to my friends who also talked to the consultant instead of hunting down an attorney for myself -- or more likely not and just going it alone and reading the documentation myself (I know guys who do this).

There's a lot of benefit here for those who need guidance.

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#39

Post by paulgb » Wed, Jan 11, 2023, 6:02 PM UTC

qaq wrote: post #27

themitigating wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? Look at their other severance benefits. Besides if you need an attorney for an immigration case it would be a massive amount of hours. The 30 minutes consultation is helpful to decide if you need to pursue a case. I can't believe with all they are giving you still had to shit on it somehow.

Tell me you never dealt with US visa system without telling me you never dealt with US visa system

I've had at least half a dozen US visas (J-1, TN, H-1B, plus renewals, then EAD and now permanent residency). I would have appreciated this benefit if I'd been laid off.

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#40

Post by notch656c » Wed, Jan 11, 2023, 6:02 PM UTC

prepend wrote: post #29

qaq wrote: post #2

"Visa holders get one 30-minute paid consultation with an immigration attorney" wow

I think it basically means they can’t answer visa related questions so anything they can’t answer gets punted to this consult. It’s a consideration that they’ll have lots of questions that would have been “I don’t know, go find an attorney.” So now it’s “we paid this attorney to answer you up to 30 minutes.” Visa holders are extra hosed during layoffs, but there’s not really any way to avoid this as you can’t favor v…

The attorney may have even paid the company. Getting 1:1 contact with hundreds of recently highly-paid clients that need your services is likely worth not only doing free but paying the company laying off for the privilege. The 30 minutes is enough for the commercial, not the actual services.