Ask HN: Who else got fired today?

[blackwednesday]

So far I've heard of:

* Apartment List (13% per The Information)

* Carta (16% per The Information)

* Opendoor (35% per The Information)

Any others? Interesting that they were all announced on the same day, is it possible that there was some coordination, especially by VCs trying to staunch the blood loss within their portfolios?

[smileysteve]

I don't understand why Carta or Opendoor should be affected by Coronavirus.

Carta: Offering stock options to your employees does not seem to be something short term enough that 2-3 months of slowed business cycle would impact sales.

Opendoor: Anecdotally, I know of multiple people who have sold houses above listing in my market, others buying at or above market, and realtors doing tours (both virtually and in person). And 35% is a drastic cut.

One theory is that this is reducing operating expenses to not have to raise funds this year.

[levi-turner]

> I don't understand why Carta or Opendoor should be affected by Coronavirus.

In the abstract, I'd guess the primary theory is that you never let a crisis go to waste. These exigent circumstances allow for making moves which otherwise would cause such a ruckus that it is avoided. Deprecating products which aren't viable. Eliminating groups / etc which aren't proving value.

We shall see.

[chris11]

Techcrunch wrote an article in May 2019 about Carta raising a Series E. They also reported an annual revenue run rate of 55 million with nearly 600 employees. That's less than 100k per employee. I'm not sure if Carta's profitable.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/06/carta-was-just-valued-at-1...

[dandanio]

* Groupon (44%) - https://www.chicagobusiness.com/john-pletz-technology/groupo...

[llamataboot]

Laid off != Fired

[Fred27]

Bear in mind that different countries have different interpretations. I'm guessing you're all arguing about a US view. In the UK, "fired" would mean that you lost your job because you did something seriously wrong.

[exolymph]

There's a distinction in HR. Colloquially, "fired" means "involuntary dismissal of any sort."

Edit: To be clear, by colloquially I mean how people tend to use the word in practice.

[sys_64738]

In either case you're here today but gone tomorrow. They're the same but the excuse is different.

[Allvitende]

Hm. Yes, it actually does. It's just a nice way of putting it.

[loeg]

Dell (today) announced no raises for the year, no hiring, and for non-exempt, no overtime approval (without a lot of authorization).

[oceanghost]

Christie Digital (the makers of the digital movie projectors for AMC among people), is doing layoffs today... I haven't heard anything yet.

[abhi3]

VSCO let go 30% staff today

[xwdv]

There’s firings everyday, it only looks coordinate because you look at one day.