Substack is the latest tech company to announce layoffs, with the company’s CEO Chris Best Twitter on Wednesday that he releases 13 workers. According to axios, that’s about 14 percent of Substack’s workforce. In his letter and follow-up tweets, Best cites “market conditions” as the reason for the layoffs.
He also admits that the move may come as a surprise to some employees. “Not long ago I told all of you that our plan was to grow the team and not take layoffs,” he says, noting that the company is “still hiring for specific key positions” and has money. saved. Best, however, says the company needs to change tactics as it could face “an extended period” when the economy goes from bad to worse. He says the layoffs are one of many changes the company has made to ensure it is “in a strong financial position”.
The people we are saying goodbye to today are all talented, wonderful people who care deeply about helping readers and writers. It hurts to let them go. We will miss them.
— Chris Best (@cjgbest) June 29, 2022
According to The New York Times, some of the laid-off employees were involved in human resources and writer support. The report also says Substack has recently halted efforts to raise funding from investors, but revenues are still growing.
In April, Substack faced a minor controversy over his hiring efforts when his vice president of communications a recruiting link tweeted while noting a specific type of employee, she told the company not done want. “If you’re a Twitter employee who’s considering resigning because you’re concerned that Elon Musk is pushing for less regulated speech… please don’t come here to work,” she said. The company has traditionally said it attaches great importance to freedom of expression.
Substack isn’t the only company to lay off a significant percentage of its employees in the past two months. Companies such as Tesla, Netflix, Klarna, Better.com and Cameo have all cut jobs, as have several major crypto firms.
