[ibejoeb]

At the same time, everyone in the startup game needs to know that this is a fairly likely outcome. It's just not as safe as being at an institution that can weather the storm.

I tell potential hires explicitly that this can fail, and that there's a runway, and that it's uncertain. I've seen so many places try to sell people that it's just kicking ass all the way to the bank.

So, when a CEO makes this kind of statement, I would refer back to the initial messaging before getting out my coals and rake. Nobody made anyone sign on to a nascent software company. It absolutely sucks to find yourself without income, but you've got to know your risk tolerance. And, by that, I mean you need to know how well you tolerate risk, and you need to know your exposure. If management wasn't forthright, well, that's really shitty.

[amrocha]

"Institutions that can weather the storm" like Google? Like Facebook? Amazon?

The entire industry has had layoffs, regardless of size. In fact, in my experience there's plenty of startups that are still growing and hiring the laid off talent from the big institutions. Apollo was not one of those companies, but it doesn't seem like it being a startup had any impact.

[ibejoeb]

Yeah. I figured an obligate contrarian was gonna gotcha me. Sometimes big companies do layoffs.

I stand corrected.

But, then again, the CEO does say: "we are not yet profitable: we’ve taken full advantage of outside capital to speed our growth. That was good stewardship in a time when interest rates were low and venture capital was widely available on good terms. But economic conditions have changed and we believe that it’s no longer prudent to rely on outside capital to support us"

I just don't know what to make of it. It was a healthy company.

> it doesn't seem like it being a startup had any impact

A true mystery.

[amrocha]

You're statistically wrong about layoffs. Big companies have had way more layoffs than startups. Pointing that out doesn't make me a contrarian. You can admit that you were wrong instead of digging your heels in.

[UncleMeat]

Google hasn't had layoffs in meaningful quantity.

[amrocha]

You're right, my bad. Most big companies have had them so I must have somehow thought Google did too.