"Our mission is simple: Level the playing field and democratize the commerce experience."
I wish I could short all startups that use the term 'democratize' for any reason.
Bolt announces layoffs
341–350 of 564 posts
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#342Earlier quoted context omitted.
This has details https://twitter.com/theryanking/status/1493390167461224451
Wow. After reading this I clicked on CEO Ryan Breslow's Twitter profile pic which is of him barefoot, wearing a psychedelic hoodie and sitting in a yoga position with his palms upturned. Between this loan idea, the self-reference to the 4 day work week and the yogi pose, it's like something straight out of HBO's "Silicon Valley."
Read that: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2022/04/04/meet-t...
That's even beyond what the show depicted!
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#343The founder also encouraged employees to take on what was effectively personal debt at an ~11B valuation when they only did $5.2M in Q1…
The founder pushing employees to take such a reckless financial decision while presumably their only insight into many key business metrics is the leaderships rosy portrayal of them is unethically irresponsible.
You missed one important insight: the founder pushing employees to buy shares. That's a red flag on its own. If your options expire, that's less dilution, so there isn't really an incentive to get employees to exercise other than raising funds and the appearance of internal confidence.
Responsible leadership will give you numbers, but leave you to make your own choice. Anything else should make you worry.
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#344Earlier quoted context omitted.
40M in revenue for the year?! Jesus, my startup is making about half that with a good sales pipeline for this year and we are 55 employees total. We might hire additional handful this year but that's it. How do you even onboard when you double your workforce every few months?
Wow that is very impressive in this climate may I ask what is the category of the business? I am guessing it is not in any of the fashionable current spaces (blockchain, retail logistics, fintech,…)
No, a much less sexy but profitable and still under-served market - industrial monitoring and process improvement.
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#345Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to Ryan Brewslow, > 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 So I suppose the bank will be after your personal assets?
It's usually quite rare for startups to offer good equity. HOPEFULLY this loan isn't a lot more than OP's salary. And theoretically, they can be sold for a decent percentage of the principal.
Ain't gonna happen they will be worthless.
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#346Earlier 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.
Profit is easier to game in the short term.
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#347Rumors 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.
Large companies make tons of money and will hire talent for cheap from startups
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#348I called it ages ago -- this company is an utter train wreck. I am honestly ashamed of the entire industry for birthing and fostering this basically fraudulent company. Its mistakes and lies are compounding on themselves, creating awful outcomes for its employees: - Company almost certainly juiced its usage numbers, potentially by buying users to inflate its customers revenues, so it could use those numbers to convin…
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Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#349Rumors 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
40M in revenue for the year?! Jesus, my startup is making about half that with a good sales pipeline for this year and we are 55 employees total. We might hire additional handful this year but that's it. How do you even onboard when you double your workforce every few months?
I worked at a startup and the CEO was obsessed with hiring at all cost. We, engineers, were all wondering what the hell these new hires were supposed to do. We did not need them.
Then they explained it to me. They needed to show growth through hiring in order to raise money.
I mean, I couldn’t even blame them, if that’s a criteria for VC to hand you a check, well you gotta do what you gotta do.
Needless to say this startup, eventually had to cut cost and end up firing most North America employees and replacing them with new hires in east Europe.
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#350> 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.
When I've had to separate with employees, I never brought feelings into it. I kept it fact-based as possible for a multitude of reasons. Most of all, respect for the employee.