Sequoia VC Layoffs

this is the best decision they have done and hope they restructure India too. Most of the VC HR folks are just beefed up resumes with "useless gyaan baatna", "we know everyone in the industry cockiness", "ass-licking" as their best skill.

As a founder or a leader trying to set up a team, its a headache interacting with the Sequoia Talent or Human Capital team. They have no response or solution to anything. Learned the hard way to not depend on them.

The whole thing is like one big jugaad game. Once the funding deal is done, the second-in's of the VC's will connect you to their human capital team. The way they project their in-house team will be like some God's gift to the founders and we think we thank our stars for such founders/people team. The experience with the VC's inhouse people team was so pathetic but since they are referred by the "mai-baaps", it takes a while before we see the actual problem - they are incompetent duds!

The VC's do realise this issue and then starts the recommendation for the "VC boutique HR/TA or exclusive Recruiters". These are small hiring team which just chadaao's us to chane ke jhaad. Trust me - they are experts in this. Now, by this time, as a founder we are desperate to get people to solve immediate issues and get sucked into the solutions by these "boutique firms". Some very expensive hires for some very critical senior roles (which later you would realise you wouldnt have hired otherwise or not even needed for the organisation), sudden unknown new problems in the company, headache and pressure that follows will drive you to a break.

The realisation comes in much later that the VC recommended or VC's boutique recommended hires or people solutions are never going to work. They are exactly like the McK,B&C,BCG type of solutions - expensive, worthless.

Once we started to check about this with few other startups, the skeletons tumbled. This is like one scheme that has been running for a long time. VC's (some unknowingly) put these human capital people to us & very subtly & slowly, they do get a share of the funding as hiring or people consulting expenses. But, when shit hits the roof inhouse, these costs are never accounted or owned by the VC folks. Trust me - the one time cost can definitely give that run way for the organisation in pay/salaries.

Hard lesson learned and hope the layoff continues to remove such redundant roles.

Sabne khaya hai, sabki pet kharab hogi.

Heard about layoffs in matrix (another vc) as well

I've heard that it's happening in India too.

These firms need to clean out their investment team first. Filled with incapable benchwarmers having no operating experience