SaaStruthATX

Senior Enterprise Account Exec

EBITDA and PE companies

I was just laid off last week. No reason, no warning, No PIP, and one of the stronger producers on the team... What I keep having trouble wrapping my head around is I had several deals about to close and was going to have a really strong quarter. I can't understand why a company would let a salesperson go it the middle of the busiest quarter when they are making them money?

I have heard many software companies are using the lay offs as an excuse (even when profitable) to clear overhead and make their earnings look better for their PE boards..Has anyone else heard this or have an idea of what is going on? I can understand Facebook and all the big companies who over projected...My other thought is they are trying to clear people with higher salaries.

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12 comments

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jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Definitely some bullshit.

Take a day or two and get yourself back out there

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

Sounds like some BS tbh

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

DAMN. that is a mystery to me. sorry to hear about this. did you get any severance at least??

SaaStruthATX

Valued Contributor

Senior Enterprise Account Exec

Hardly anything (definitely not a Meta type scenario where I recvd 4 months) ...I was there close to 3 years too!

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

dang! thats rough

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

Dang really sorry to hear about that. Take care of your mentals

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

PE firms are unfortunate

Arzola

Valued Contributor

Business administration

agree!

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

So sorry, it doesn't seem to make sense.

How big was the company? And what % was let go (if you know)?

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

So sorry to hear that and life have something good for you.

Have they done something like before as well ?

JDialz

Politicker

Chief Operating Officer

Hell yeah - they’re clearing the decks because almost every tech company had a complete shit earnings call + no more free Wall Street money + 10T inverted.

Large portion of your compensation comes as RSUs? When they fire you it’s effectively the company rebating their own shares to themself. Pretty genius honestly, in a very super villain kind of way. I co-wrote an article for Forbes about this very possible scenario (but specific to H1b visa holders) last December. Jim Cramer called us out on his show the next day calling it an improbable doomsday scenario that would only be possible if several major tech companies experienced extended downturns at the same time.

Suck it, Jim. 🤑

Mendizo

Opinionated

Sr. Director

Sorry to hear that bud, and best wishes to you!

To your question, yes that is definitely going around. Every company is in a different place, but I've now had the chance to hear from multiple boards of PE firms and the message is one and the same: reduce your OpEx, because money is no longer cheap. Also, since everyone else is laying off, do it now and overdo it a bit to be on the safe side, our brand won't be hurt.

I totally get both sides of it, it's of course just too bad because there's people making a living on the line here. We're also seeing some power start to swing back into the hands of employers, versus them being caught on the back foot the last couple of years. They will be able to collectively use this 'fear' that is developing to reduce churn and get people to take on more than they did before, to make up for those they shed.

The degree of how much this happens will definitely also be impacted by where the PE company is at. There are a handful I know of trying to go public in the next year (as soon as there seems to be any glimmer in the dark of this macro environment), and they need to get their burn rate down right now.

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