[KoftaBob]

"I know this news is surprising, especially as you heard last month that the business is on track with record quarters and increasing customer demand. However, capital markets sentiment shifted to a more balanced approach between growth and profitability, and at this time, we have decided the best course of action is to reorganize to position OneTrust for continued long-term success."

Translation: we over-hired based on the assumption that VC money would keep being easy to come by, and now that VCs might be tightening their purse strings, we want to preemptively lower our burn rate in case the next round of funding is tougher.

I get it, but every pre-IPO company that does this just indicates that their leadership are short sighted and gobble up as much VC money as possible just because they can, rather than raising only the amount needed for their growth goals.

This whole "let's over hire while the VC money is flowing and mass lay off as soon as it's not" thing will make talent think twice before applying to your company, and will make your existing talent eager to look elsewhere for more a more secure role.

[laichzeit0]

> This whole "let's over hire while the VC money is flowing and mass lay off as soon as it's not" thing will make talent think twice before applying to your company, and will make your existing talent eager to look elsewhere for more a more secure role.

It really won’t though. People have short term memories and ego. Also, the next hiring round will most likely be from a fresh crop of graduates that will zero collective memory of what happened since they were still in school.

[fn-mote]

> Also, the next hiring round will most likely be from a fresh crop of graduates

Sure, if you're only hiring new graduates. They're always cheap. And frequently those positions are a revolving door.

I would be more concerned about hiring senior people, and what they heard through their network.

[mandelbrotwurst]

You're right. You need quite strong leadership from upper management to accomplish this as middle management will tend to bias for increasing their own headcount now.

It's not even necessarily out of selfishness per se - more just that most managers are confident and believe that if they have more resources, that will inevitably translate into success for the company.

[sokoloff]

> leadership are short sighted and gobble up as much VC money as possible just because they can, rather than raising only the amount needed for their growth goals.

When money is excessively easy and cheap, far-sighted leaders might reasonably choose to gorge on that opportunity.

[KoftaBob]

I guess what I meant to say is that the way they’re using that funding is short sighted, ie the over hiring.

[jjav]

> This whole "let's over hire while the VC money is flowing and mass lay off as soon as it's not" thing will make talent think twice before applying

If it did, why were people applying since the cycle has repeated many times already? The dot.com crash happened after all.

Also, VCs generally give the company money for the purpose of growing, so when the VC money is flowing you kinda have to do that.

[missedthecue]

Goals are defined by capabilities, are they not? And if you have greater capability (more VC money in this case) your goals will surely be loftier as well.