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The ‘great unwinding’ hits start-ups

Layoffs have hit many corners of the corporate world. And they’ve pummeled start-ups — which are often pushed to grow fast or die — with particular ferocity, the NYT’s Erin Griffith reports.

More than 50 start-ups have cut or furloughed roughly 6,000 employees in recent weeks, by Erin’s count. Few sectors seem immune, with travel companies like Vacasa, retailers like Everlane and hiring services like ZipRecruiter resorting to layoffs. Bigger companies aren’t immune either: Airbnb has suspended hiring and frozen $800 million worth of marketing.

The scooter start-up Bird laid off a third of its work force remotely, drawing huge amounts of scorn. Dot.LA takes a deep dive into how the company dismissed 406 employees via a two-minute Zoom webinar, which one employee likened to an episode of “Black Mirror,” the dystopian sci-fi show:

After five minutes of dead air that seemed like an eternity, a robotic-sounding, disembodied voice came on the line. The woman began by acknowledging, “This is a suboptimal way to deliver this message.” Then she cut to the chase: “Covid-19 has also had a massive impact on our business, one that has forced our leadership team and our board of directors to make extremely difficult and painful decisions. One of those decisions is to eliminate a number of roles at the company. Unfortunately, your role is impacted by this decision.”

The start-up survival guide looks like this, Erin reports: “Cut spending, lower prices on products, renegotiate fixed costs for things like leases and ask the government for assistance for the fitness studios, home rental operators or gig workers they rely on.”