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Layoffs at Block

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Re: Layoffs at Block

#901

Post by melozo »

_fizz_buzz_ wrote: post #899
dzonga wrote: post #850

Straight from the horses mouth: >> yes we over-hired during covid because i incorrectly built 2 separate company structures (square & cash app) rather than 1, which we corrected mid 2024. but this misses all the complexity we took on through lending, banking, and BNPL. and that we’re now targeting $2M+ gross profit per person, 4x our pre-covid efficiency, which stayed flat at ~$500k from 2019 until 2024. we have and…

> that we’re now targeting $2M+ gross profit per person That seems really high. Do they have such moat that nobody can move into their space?

Ironically Square isn’t good at anything in particular. Square fails to have a good point of sale (Toast wins) and fails for online store fronts (Shopify wins). Square is in a position where they spread themselves thin and aren’t at the top of anything in particular.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#903

Post by Fervicus »

melozo wrote: post #901
_fizz_buzz_ wrote: post #899

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that we’re now targeting $2M+ gross profit per person That seems really high. Do they have such moat that nobody can move into their space?

Ironically Square isn’t good at anything in particular. Square fails to have a good point of sale (Toast wins) and fails for online store fronts (Shopify wins). Square is in a position where they spread themselves thin and aren’t at the top of anything in particular.

Just wait till they start vibe coding more features!

Re: Layoffs at Block

#904

Post by mjr00 »

_fizz_buzz_ wrote: post #899
dzonga wrote: post #850

Straight from the horses mouth: >> yes we over-hired during covid because i incorrectly built 2 separate company structures (square & cash app) rather than 1, which we corrected mid 2024. but this misses all the complexity we took on through lending, banking, and BNPL. and that we’re now targeting $2M+ gross profit per person, 4x our pre-covid efficiency, which stayed flat at ~$500k from 2019 until 2024. we have and…

> that we’re now targeting $2M+ gross profit per person That seems really high. Do they have such moat that nobody can move into their space?

Payment processing is one of the most tightly regulated, and some might say corrupt, industries. Replicating the tech wouldn't be difficult. The social and regulatory part is effectively impossible for anyone who's not already in the inner circle.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#905

Post by djeekle »

melozo wrote: post #901
_fizz_buzz_ wrote: post #899

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that we’re now targeting $2M+ gross profit per person That seems really high. Do they have such moat that nobody can move into their space?

Ironically Square isn’t good at anything in particular. Square fails to have a good point of sale (Toast wins) and fails for online store fronts (Shopify wins). Square is in a position where they spread themselves thin and aren’t at the top of anything in particular.

Basically… no vision.

Yeah they’re going nowhere in the long term.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#906

Post by Aurornis »

dzonga wrote: post #850

Straight from the horses mouth: >> yes we over-hired during covid because i incorrectly built 2 separate company structures (square & cash app) rather than 1, which we corrected mid 2024. but this misses all the complexity we took on through lending, banking, and BNPL. and that we’re now targeting $2M+ gross profit per person, 4x our pre-covid efficiency, which stayed flat at ~$500k from 2019 until 2024. we have and…

Block job listings were all over for a couple years. I thought it was odd that they were hiring so much given what we know about their business lines. I assumed there were some internal projects or new business lines.

I feel sorry for anyone who joined recently and then got laid off because they company wasn't planning properly.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#907

Post by Aurornis »

izacus wrote: post #887
mancerayder wrote: post #870

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter if the main reason is they over-hired. Financial services is going to eat it up, there are eyes going wide all over the place in the C-suites, I am certain. Companies/Funds that own other companies see an opportunity to reduce input costs (human costs). Even if over-hiring and AI are both explained reasons, the second one is going to win out as it's a narrative that lines up with what their goal is,…

"over-hired" seems like mostly copium of engineers being very afraid that their company will discard them like this and are trying to rationalize why they won't follow.

There was obvious over-hiring in the couple years after COVID while interest rates were low. A lot of companies corrected and laid off staff when that stopped.

This was before LLMs writing code was a daily discussion topic. Blaming every layoff on AI is mostly people connecting trending headlines together.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#908

Post by rbtprograms »

_fizz_buzz_ wrote: post #899
dzonga wrote: post #850

Straight from the horses mouth: >> yes we over-hired during covid because i incorrectly built 2 separate company structures (square & cash app) rather than 1, which we corrected mid 2024. but this misses all the complexity we took on through lending, banking, and BNPL. and that we’re now targeting $2M+ gross profit per person, 4x our pre-covid efficiency, which stayed flat at ~$500k from 2019 until 2024. we have and…

> that we’re now targeting $2M+ gross profit per person That seems really high. Do they have such moat that nobody can move into their space?

i think they dont have a great moat in their individual offerings, but across square, cash app, and afterpay they offer a pretty good suite of products for the entire transaction stack.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#909

Post by ge96 »

Feel like I tried to get a job here before/did some online test, had to find hidden code in HTML (some broken message scattered across CSS classes) and yeah it took me a bit to do it, didn't hear anything or was denied ahh well. That wasn't the full test, that was the start of it.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#910

Post by SoftTalker »

ezfe wrote: post #568
vessenes wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot attrite 40% of the company in 5 months, without creating an incredibly toxic environment. Dorsey knows this; ultimately he lost Twitter over his inability to right size it. I would bet dollars to donuts he promised himself he wouldn't do it again - under no circumstances is 40% cut over six months preferable to a clean fast cut.

Voluntary severance/ERO is possible without a bad culture. I’ve seen it done, people love it.

What is the age distribution of employees at Block? I'd guess it skews quite young. You won't have much natural attrition or interest in early retirement. And in this job market, voluntary severance is also not very attractive.
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