Read it here https://thearcweb.com/article/freshworks-ceo-girish-mathrubootham-dennis-woodside-nk9KjHaaNKUEvHAy

This is good.. . Why should employees face all the cuts

Software Engineer

Product Owner

Board has cancelled founders esop options granted at IPO

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

Freshworks CEO salary cut 😂

Freshworks CEO salary cut 😂- Grapevine

The company had more than 6 layoffs in the past  10 months. Right from office boys to the company COO was affected by the layoff. The recent layoff happened 10 days back, where the company didn't pay their employees a single dime and instead gave them their value less esops to keep their mouth shut. The company is being run by 2 arrogant adamant co-founders along with their 10 other close ally so called the CORE team. The employees were on 30% salary cut since 10 months in the name of deffered and were promised that everyone would get it back with 8% interest on the cut. In every layoff employees were asked to leave within a day or two without even paying them for their notice period. Nobody was vocal about it as the founders had threatened some ex employees that they would make their life miserable and they will find it difficult to get jobs anywhere in future.

The dirty game of Dukaan's layoffs

If we actually think about it, this is even worse than Byju’s. No severance, long-standing pay cuts, and direct/indirect threats.  
 Dukaan deserves to die.

Operations Manager

What changed for you post acquisition and how did it change your lives

Context: worked at a small startup getting acquired soon by a publicly listed company

Anyone who worked at a startup then got acquired by a big company?

I was working in a startup, but I left only after a couple of years. 😅 That startup got acquired by a big company some years after I left.  
  
 My co-workers who stayed till the acquisition, their life changed in two ways at acquisition: 
  
 1. Each of them got USD $1 million cash in exchange for the e-sops / equity they owned  
  
 2. On acquisition, their salaries immediately got doubled by the acquiring company, in line with the company's salary bands 
  
 So there, that's how lives change on acquisition. 😄

Staff Engineer

Software Developer

Welcome to Personal Finance's Private Community

I got a offer where i will get the equity. Does people really make money when company get sold considering in my case if i get 1% equity.

Also how does it work? Suppose when we start valuation of the company is 1 cr so my part will be 1L. Now in the next round suppose the valuation is 10cr then does it increase my equity to 10L or it dilute my % of equity?

Suppose if the company is sold at 100cr, do i really get 1 cr? Kindly let me know how it works and really people make money or not if it get sold.

How does equity works for founding engineer?

Engineering Manager

I recently worked at a startup and it was terrible. 

To be honest, I still worked at one of the better ones but it just sucked. 

Some of the clear downsides I see 

- Survival mode leads to chaos. You can be treated anyway and asked to leave whenever  even though you left big opportunities to be here 
- Brand loss to find next job (Big problem)
- Trying to make you feel unworthy(Doesn't bother me but I have seen people lose self confidence)
- Loss of opportunity to build real skills like building sustainable teams for the long run

I think over all working at a startup especially early teams is a losing proposition. Do it only if -
 - you know the founders/team well 
- you know the industry and market well and it is a bet you personally believe in
- you are secure enough in life that if you go back to your job, you will easily get employed 


For middle class kids, startups are the worst bets one can take.

Working at startups is terrible

Product Designer

Welcome to News Discussion's Private Community

From the last few days there were talks going on about layoffs in Morgan Stanley. Some 7% of the global staff will be handed over the pink slip in this week. 
Well... It started happening from today ... Few colleagues from my department were laid, and the reason being "company is trying to survive in the market, company is planning the road ahead by taking such bold steps".
When this was announced, my anxiety shot up the next level and I couldn't wait for the meeting to finish.
The past few years have not been great for the business worldwide due to which many companies are forced to take such steps. These companies just have been doing a hiring spree from the last 1-2 years that now they are regretting their decisions and letting off their employees.
My question is - "If a company hires excessively during the bull market and is forced to lay off few of the employees during the downturn, has the company made an error by not evaluating the headcount or it was just simply the need of the hour" 
 
Please note - I know many people out there who have faced job cuts due to many factors, sincerely requesting people to take this matter very seriously

Layoffs - A complete mess made by the companies

Analyst

Headcount decreased from 145 to 80 with the target of bringing it to 50. Ceo is a dumbo with no clear understanding of product and future. They launched a new product called Verk which was an AI agent that could do tasks of all kind for you but in background they hired cheap labour to do those tasks manually. Total sham. They aggressively hired across verticals for it and when the bubble burst and investors whopped asses of Ceo and cto (who is a co-founder but just follows master’s orders) by asking them not to use funds raised for a different product to fund this new sham product, they fired people within 2-3 days. Extraordinary performers were let go of just because of office politics and bootlicking by non performing old timers. Btw some founding members also resigned citing future difficulties since this is the 7th pivot they are taking. Founder ensures no firings will happen and then fires folks the next day. Sham company. Beware before joining!

65% staff laid off at Contlo/SuperAgi

Product Manager

Just an open ended question on why are layoffs happening on such a scale. I personally feel the skill to salary ratio has fucked up so much lately that the companies are having to fire people who are essentially useless to them. More of liabilities than just assets! What do you think?

Layoffs - who do you blame?

Absolutely agreed. Hiring in hordes because money was easily available earlier and founders/companies thought that they will be able to build more and hence get more value / valuation sooner was the core reason why the skill to salary ratio got f’ed up. And it’s good that it’s being reset now. 
  
 Coming to who to blame for layoffs - no one. It’s pure capitalism - there was money, hence there were jobs. For whatever time people got paid a lot more than they deserved - they should be rather thankful. If they built their life around the assumption that this much money was the new normal, it was their naïveté. Companies got to survive, and they have to do whatever has to be done… as long as it’s ethical. Firing is fine. Not paying salaries / dues is not.

Founding Engineer

Software Lead

Another consumer tech startup bites the dust :/

https://entrackr.com/2023/10/ex-myntra-ceos-startup-virgio-shuts-down-after-raising-37-mn/

Virgio shuts down a year into raising $37Mn

Get a tag(college/company) -> Open a startup -> Get Funding (even seed stage is fine) -> Burn money -> sell or shut down startup. 
  
 Fastest way to accumulate wealth in today's time.

Corporate Strategist

Where did you work and how much money did you make?

Asking as it looks like a lot of promise of ESOPs and wealth creation has failed employees in this bloodbath slow growth, layoffs, and job changes.

"ESOPs made me rich af"

I have had ESOPS in 2 companies 
#1 - company got acquired ..I got 45 Lacs IN ESOP ...thats 1.5X of my last annualized salary  ( so additional salary for 18 months) 
#2 - Company became unicorn ... I quit and company bought my ESOPs . Got 2 Cr
That is 3X of my annualized salary

Company 1 - I had joined at very early stage ; Company 2 - I joined at mid-stage

UX/UI Designer

Fynd downsizing

RPA Developer

Be it about investors, co-founders, hires, freelancers, family, or yourself

Founders, what will you never share publicly about your startup?

Hi Folks, Can you please let me know which startsups or organisation we should not join 

Reason may be:

No Mission and Vision
Pathetic HR Policies
Burning investors money with 0 Revenue product
Random Hiring and Layoffs
Other reason you can mention
Dirty Politics
Dirty Appraisals and Promotions
If i missed anything mention in comments 

So that our geeks will not join pathetic place and save atleast current job

Do not join list

Frsh is doing it again. Comment if you know folks who have been affected.

Freshworks Layoff alert.

Journalist

Data on founder Salaries in India 

https://inc42.com/features/founder-salaries-tracker-fy23-amid-the-funding-winter-how-much-did-startup-founders-earn/

List of Founder Salaries in India

Growth Manager

I'm seeing so many posts where startup employees are cribbing about things like layoffs, work culture etc etc. Doesn't seem like they have perspective on everything it takes to build a startup. I've built a failed startup myself and have immense respect for founders who are grinding it out there in such difficult recessionary circumstances. 

And then you have so many of the engineers and PMs cribbing about basics without talking about important things like learning growth, building for the future etc. Why such myopia? I work at a big tech and envy the speed at which startups move, the big responsibility everyone gets to handle, the fast career growth. All these things are being cribbed about. They crib about founders wanting more. Their job is to ensure success, not to give lifetime jobs to entitled people. They have more headaches you can imagine. In my small startup I had a million headaches. I can only imagine how hard it must be to run larger ships. Is everyone joining a startup these days looking for a get rich quick scheme?

Why are startup folks so entitled?

If you can’t run a business that lets people have a normal life then you’re the one who thinks they’re entitled to employees. 
 Businesses must take risk, employees don’t. Stop your whining that people won’t support shitty business plans

We all have heard about the toxic culture of Edtech. Unacademy is now in the top spot when it comes to companies with toxic culture. Any company cannot be more cruel than this:

1. Abusive language by leaders - COO, CBOs, SVP, VP and other leaders treat employees as slaves. They themselves have made huge lossess and are burning investors money but when any employee voice out their opinion/asks for leaves, the leaders abuse employees badly even in front of other stakeholders.

2. Forceful long working hours -
Even if you complete your work in 8-9 hours, you are forced to sit for 11-12 hours just to show the founders.
People hardly work after certain hours but they just have to sit and waste their time. This is tiring and there is no work life balance. No time to spend with family. I hardly get chance to spen time with child. 

3. Late night reviews -
So the company has started this new way of conducting monthly reviews late in the night. People are asked to sit till 2-3 AM for reviews. And this review is nothing but a setup where COO abuses the employees.

4. Forced paycuts -
We have seen a forced paycut for the leaders (VP, SVP, Directors etc). 'No appraisal' was still somehow digestable but how can a company justify the degrowth in the earnings of their employees. Company has money to sponsor TVF web series (Sandeep Bhaiya), invite Standup comedians (Biswa and Prashasti), distribute pizzas to all the employees but when someone voices out for paycuts, they don't have money. 

5. No Flexibility In Working
The company witnessed its highest growth and revenue when 100% of the employees were working from home but now the founders think that people do not work from home so they have called everyone to work from office for 6 days a week. If someone asks for a work from home, the leaders denies or ask to apply leave to work from home.
Be it rains, election, etc - we are asked to work from office. Even during the day of election in Karnataka we were called in the office.

Unacademy is synonymous to Toxicity

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

Navi Technology founded by Sachin Bansal is doing mass layoffs which started on Tuesday (11 July)

Mass Layoffs at Navi Technology

Damn no wonder they are firing 
 I know some average freshers who joined at 21 base last year  
 Overpaying for average talent always results in firing in startups,is what I have observed

Data Scientist

What an insane journey this man has had!
feel sad though that FW will now be a fully american company with all senior leaders in america

Mathrubootham will now be spending more time on the long-term product vision, innovation and AI strategy.

Freshworks CEO salary cut 😂

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