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Bolt announces layoffs

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Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#321

Post by SmellTheGlove »

scarface74 wrote: post #304
phphphphp wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

very broad strokes: money is raised to be spent. each round gets you to the next, or you reach some measure of sustainability before the money runs out — layoffs like this should be expected, regardless of the amount raised, if there’s a shift in conditions that indicate raising again in 18 months isn’t going to be easy. You can burn any amount of money if you want to.

Neither the VCs nor the founders care about “sustainability” or profitability. They care about exiting and not being left holding the bag.

In the grand scheme of it, I haven't worked with that many, but every founder I have had the chance to work with has cared about sustainability. This is way more speculative, but I believe that sustainability goes out the window in favor of quarterly wins when the (co)founder steps back from their role and they transition to a non-(co)founder CEO and such.

I guess we could interpret that as the cofounder cares about sustainability for as long as it takes to hand off the bag.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#322

Post by dang »

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…

We've banned this account, and the main account associated with it, for trolling. (Explained in the sibling replies: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31512443).

Please don't create accounts to do this.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#323

Post by dang »

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.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31510715 so it wouldn't suffer from that one being collapsed.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#324

Post by dang »

anon_123g987 wrote: post #230
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…

From user throwaabolt 's profile page: "troll account. didn't actually get laid off from bold. curious to see how long it takes HN to realize this."

We've banned throwaabolt and also what looks to be that user's main account.

To answer the question, it took HN only a few minutes for some users to realize this, but 2 hours for me to find out about it. Most of that time, an email was sitting in the inbox waiting. Thank you for pointing this out, and also to the user who emailed, since otherwise I wouldn't have seen this. We rely on the community to route info to us. Fortunately HN has a lot of users who care about the quality of the site.

All: if you notice anything weird, dodgy, or otherwise degrading of quality, we always appreciate a heads-up at hn@ycombinator.com. HN admins are mostly a clearinghouse for things that the community notices, so this really is a shared effort.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#325

Post by wombatpm »

abraxas wrote: post #310
version_five wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen companies with less revenue and a bigger workforce growing at that rate. They call it blitz-scaling, and I don't know if it's actually ever worked, where I saw it first hand it was basically just setting a pile of money on fire.

Reminds me of my dotcom boom/bust experience of the late nineties where the dotcom was posting monthly "hiring targets" and celebrating that they met them. They were so screwed and tanked badly right after March 2000.

March 2001

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#326

Post by DantesKite »

bartread wrote: post #248

> This is one of the hardest messages I’ve ever had to send. Layoffs are something of a fact of life but, seriously, executives need to stop saying things like this when they announce them. Nobody gives a damn how company leaders feel in these situations, least of all the people receiving the message - nor should they.

I remember reading a blog post about how to do lay offs once. I can’t find it anymore but it was essentially don’t make it about yourself. It leaves a bitter taste in their mouth. Wish I could find it.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#327

Post by vincentmarle »

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…

It gets worse: Ryan Breslow also seems to be behind the company who was offering the equity loans to Bolt employees: https://twitter.com/anothercohen/status/1529607909398589440

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#328

Post by LilBytes »

dang wrote: post #320
LilBytes wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@dang can we see if this is true, unsure if we record history. Either anon_123g987 or throwaabolt is lying here. throwaabolt's profile account is now: "ex-employee of bolt. ready to tackle new challenges, in particular in the fintech or insurtech areas." I don't know what to believe. throwaabolt's futher messages: "thank you. can my wife's boyfriend contact you too? he is part of the layoff as well."

It's true. We've banned throwaabolt and also what looks to be that user's main account.

Thank you.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#329

Post by kasey_junk »

ethbr0 wrote: post #288
kasey_junk wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work “doing layoffs” and I don’t think I ever saw stack ranking as the layoff strategy. Most often I saw “divisions” or “capabilities” cut, either entirely or to skeleton crews that kept the lights on. Next was just randomly applied. And frankly managers with 30 or more reports were frequently layoff targets as they are expensive and don’t add a ton of obvious value to the bottom line (unless they had a sal…

Was always curious about that from an outcome perspective. It seemed like a company could go "manager-lean" (ax manager count, retain employees) for awhile, easier than vice versus. I'd imagine a lot of paperwork got back up, but presumably the company business roughly kept going. True or false?

I think the overriding lesson I learned from my time doing that job was that people dramatically overestimate their value to a firm.

That’s true of ninja rockstar developers and vp directors of business dev. Largely the world keeps turning no matter who leaves a firm no matter the circumstances.

Re: Bolt announces layoffs

#330

Post by dang »

wly_cdgr wrote: post #238
anon_123g987 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From user throwaabolt 's profile page: "troll account. didn't actually get laid off from bold. curious to see how long it takes HN to realize this."

False. Why would you claim this?

throwaabolt changed the profile after the GP was posted. We've banned the account now, as well as what looks like their main account.
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