Tech layoffs may get worse before they get better

Nov 9, 2022

Nolan Church, CEO and co-founder of Continuum and former head of talent at DoorDash, shares his insights on the current wave of tech layoffs. He reflects on the hard lessons learned from his tenure at Carta and the importance of direct communication during layoffs. The conversation delves into Twitter's turmoil, the questionable advice of cutting 20% of staff, and the future of executive roles in the industry. Additionally, Church discusses the rise of fractional work and offers his take on the emotional toll of these decisions on employees.

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ANECDOTE

Twitter Layoffs: A Case Study

Elon Musk's Twitter layoffs were drastic, cutting deep to address financial losses.
However, the impersonal email and abrupt access removal felt callous, potentially harming future recruitment.

ADVICE

Layoff Best Practices

Cut non-headcount expenses before resorting to layoffs to preserve jobs.
Prioritize retaining top performers, even consider raises or equity, as they are essential for recovery.

ANECDOTE

Carta's Layoff Approach

At Carta, layoffs involved a company-wide Zoom meeting followed by individual meetings with managers and HR.
Impacted employees retained Slack access for 24 hours, and an alumni group was formed.

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Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.

This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single person, think about their work, and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha interviewed Nolan Church, the CEO and co-founder of Continuum, about his perspective on the tech layoff wave. While we do indeed get into how his vision of fractional work fits into this conversation, we start with the fact that Church helped conduct Carta's layoffs in 2020 (a low of his entire career, he says) and what that experience taught him about the importance of being direct.

Here are a few of the topics we get into:

Twitter's recent layoffs, Jack's silence and who should take ownership for what
The generic CEO statement on macroeconomic challenges
Stripe's recent layoffs
What is the best way to conduct a layoff, and how should you communicate with staff? How does that change based on stage?
Is the rumor that all startups should just cut 20% of staff to extend runway accurate at all?
If Church could go back in time, would he change anything about the way that Carta conducted its layoffs?
What executive role is most likely to be disrupted and why Q1 may bring more doom and gloom into the tech sphere
And finally, Church's attempt to summarize all of 2022 in a headline (I don't disagree with his final answer, by the way).

From Natasha: I'll fully take ownership for the fact that my column from just two weeks ago (!) has poorly aged. If you or someone you know is whipping up a cool program - like this - to support those laid off, hit me up on Twitter and I may just create a good news show.

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Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

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