MessageBird lays off 31% of staff | Hacker News Reader

MessageBird lays off 31% of staff

blog.messagebird.com

57 pointsjanjongboom74 comments

It seems so gross, continuing to use their cute themed term for employees, "Birds" in a layoff message

I'm sure the people losing their jobs will find plenty of solace that they're not "fired," they're just a Departing Bird™!

Thank your for inadvertently popping the Monty Python parrot sketch into my brain.

I agree. Have some Fn respect. Is this blog post how their employees found out they had a 15 min notice that they were getting axed or not?

I’m willing to bet this was completely unexpected from an employee side.

Why do random companies need to write blog posts?

Just fire your people that you no longer need and get on with your day.

Companies think that they are much more important than they are.

Stop writing blogs (hello Sequoia) and just try and provide a good service for your customers, especially if you are not a public company.

Robert Vis' virtue signalling here is so cringe and useless.

It doubles as a PR/media statement, not just a message to employees.

It is much safer to get bad news out in your own voice than risk that it leaks some other way, either through a journalist reporting on it or, even, an employee breaking the story on social media.

If the company doesn't get on the front foot to control the narrative, they will wake up to an email from a journalist saying that they are writing an article about 30pc cuts.

At that point, the journalist is likely to have heard the news -- and largely written the story. The company will be able to provide a quote, but by that point they will have lost control of the narrative. They won't be able to put their own headline on it -- as the start-up has done with this blog post.

One story becomes two. Becomes three. Becomes four. Etc. Then a media narrative sets in that the company is on the way to bankruptcy, etc, etc. Investors start calling the CEO, etc, etc.

I know that people find these types of announcements cringe and think that PR is a waste of time. But there is a reason most companies use this playbook: it is safer and it works (most of the time).

For the avoidance of doubt, this isn't a justification for all the language and messaging in this announcement, but a broader justification of the general strategy of communicating openly and in your own voice when you have bad news.

> Why do random companies need to write blog posts?

Publicity. Both potential customers but also potential employees.

Most likely gets you a few brownie points with Investors and gets you some P/R. I may have heard of them before but now I checked them out. There is no such thing as a bad PR. Generally.

because if they don't then the snowflakes are gonna call them out as ruthless on twitter.

I'm continually appalled by the level of entitlement in the tech bros community, apparently layoff has no right to exist. Just because company is still making money they have to keep sharing it with you, some person who knows how to code. Someone please tell them about capitalism and the concept of "job".

"If you are part of the Birds being impacted you will receive a notification within 15 minutes to your MessageBird and private email."

Who the fuck does this?

Let's announce a layoff on our fucking blog before we tell our employees that we have to let them go. It's heartless, glib and mean.

I'm pretty sure this is the email they sent their employees. The blog probably got posted once everything was finished.

>For those of you leaving: I’m very sorry to be taking this step and I take full responsibility for the decisions leading up to it

I HATE when people start saying "I take full responsibility." Okay, if you do, then how are you being held accountable? Are you losing your bonus? Are you losing shares? Or is it just the social media equivalent of saying "Oh, my bad!"

I want concrete examples of how you are holding yourself responsible, not just lip service.

The enterprise value of their stock has likely taken a large hit. The market decides and this is upstream of layoffs.

Some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

In 2014 when the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U sales were much worse than expected, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata apologized to the company and its shareholders and took a 50% paycut.

[1]:https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/nintendo-ce...

If you’ve ever ordered takeaway, returned a package, contacted customer service, or requested a login code, it’s almost guaranteed your interactions have been powered by MessageBird’s technology.

Wait, what? Is this for real? Why have I never heard of them?

https://messagebird.com/about?ref=blog

I just built a system that sends login request codes and I've never heard of them either.

Honest question: is this an example of "fake it til you make it"?

Nope, 600M in ARR, message bird is huge

As a former Twilio employee, this is what we used to say, especially back when I started in 2011 when there really weren't many other options, and most of the few other options were not easy to get started on as a solo developer.

I think it's reasonable to say that if you do all of those quoted things, probably some of the texts you've gotten have gone through MessageBird, but certainly not all of them.

Then again, the wording of that is ambiguous enough.. that's what it could have meant, even though it's worded to sound more expansive.

It's not the only ambiguous wording in the post; the math doesn't add up here. It's probably a peak of 254 million/hr.

"during Black Friday processed a whopping 254 million emails every hour and 3.3 billion during the day"

Bigger in the EU

They own Pusher which you might have heard of.

They purchased Spark Post / Message Systems last year, which at one point handled mail for Facebook and a bunch of other big companies.

I mean, if you've ever bought anything in a shop with a credit or debit card, your interactions have probably been powered by EMVCo's stuff, but you've probably never heard of EMVCo and there's no particularly good reason that most people should have. In general, there's not much point in B2B infrastructure providers doing consumer marketing.

Is every CEO trying to emulate Gavin Belson nowadays?

Also, if they're laying off 31%, how come "We're hiring!" is still next to their careers link in the footer?

Performance

Presumably by hiring different skills then they’re firing.

I was about to make a joke in poor taste that the person who normally updates the website was impacted...But, nah, the wound is too fresh.

Separately, well before all of these layoffs that are in the news...like many months ago, i have begun to see little things like what you reported, where companies are not keeping up with small areas to update. I remarked this to a friend and they believed that they started seeing this both online and offline during around the worst of the pandemic - when most things were on super lock down...And if so, then i can imagine this being pandemic-driven....but NOW with these layoffs, i imagine we'll be seeing this alot more. Granted as a customer (or job candidate in this case), its a minor inconvenience, especially since real people are being more severely impactedf by layoffs. But of course the guess for why this is happening is likely due to simeply a lack of people, or a diverting of attention top others areas of a business. Yeesh!

I'm sorry, but I get irked whenever I see a CEO saying they take full responsibility but then accept no consequences. There is no impact on their compensation, their equity, or their life other than the "emotional scar" left behind of having to let people go. They will absolutely expect the remaining staff to pick up the game from the loss of such a big chunk of the company. It kind of feels like the letter is more or less "we know you are hurt, but so am I and think about my feelings too"

I know I'm being pessimistic, but the CEO isn't the one having to spend the next few months trying to find a good job when everyone is on a hiring freeze.

You don’t think it is a mark against the CEO?

What, is there a permanent record or something?

In most corporate compensation systems, the executives' bonuses are the most impacted when the company doesn't do well. The employees lower down are only rated based on personal performance, not the company's as they have no control over it. This is certainly the case with our company. There is no way to tell what is happening inside messagebird, or maybe someone has inside info?

> Immigration support. We know that this situation is particularly tough for departing employees who currently work on a visa. We have made individual arrangements for you in order to accommodate better for your particular situation. Details will be outlined in individual documentation.

None of these blogs ever talk specifics or examples of what they're offering in terms of immigration support.

Because they can't. There's not a lot they can do for employees on work visas, other than continuing their employment (which they won't)

There are ways to maximally draw it out. Eg. max out both paid and unpaid leave allowed by the Visa but keep them 'employed'.

Right, not firing them. But considering that boat sailed…

It hasn't sailed. The above announcement talks about initial garden leave (employed but not expected to show up at all).

I suspect keeping a person employed "for show" could be considered immigration fraud. But that's why those workers should go and hire their own labor and immigration attorneys, and don't trust advice on this website, or from their employer.

Interesting that there are quite a few openings posted on their careers page

yup, just the standard churn and burn with a little extra.

I have been saying this for a long time but listing an "open position" is nearly meaningless. It is basically advertising, saying look at us, we are growing!

> We live in unprecedented times and I am convinced that 2023 will see most of the global economy falling into recession

Doesn't laying people off sort of contribute to a recession becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy?

> Doesn't laying people off sort of contribute to a recession becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Yes, but self preservation of an oncoming reality is usually taken with higher priority that trying to influence a tsunami by removing a cup of water from the ocean.

Isn't it so crazily irrational how our economy works? We have more educated people and more technology with each year, more resources available than ever before in every sector, more and more work being finished on millions of projects, more scientific advances and drugs released and rockets launched and buildings built. But somehow, the machine that was moving along just swimmingly is determined one day by the various talking heads to be doing "bad", and then panic sets in, people fire people and sell stocks and companies fall apart, but its for no good reason. The business cycle is like a flock of pigeons sitting on a telephone line, getting startled by nothing, flying in a circle for a minute, only to sit back on the same telephone line and eventually get startled by something else.

Yes, but that's the Fed's intended goal.

So it will happen, whether you choose to get ahead of it or not. The smart ones will act in advance of the actual recession

>We live in unprecedented times

Without exception, every person I have ever heard or read saying this has been a moron.

There is nothing special about the time in which we currently live.

They apparently did two rounds of layoffs adding up to 31% total - see https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1588127916306710531 for the first one.

Their website still shows "we're hiring" but when you click on it the vacancy counter says "0".

Just for once I wanna see an honest company with a "we're FIRING" badge.

Why is this a public blog post? This is disgusting.

They said they are a profitable business... Why lay people off?

As of today, you will be on garden leave

> To be clear, as much as I believe this to be necessary it is not a reflection of me not caring for those we are asking to leave - this day leaves a scar on my soul. MessageBird is my legacy, the company I give my everything for every single day and would sacrifice almost anything for.

There is nothing more distasteful to me than the CEO harping on about how hard these lay-offs are for them.

Agreed. Don't say how upset you are, show it by offering generous severance packages (including health insurance!), job placement help, and anything else that can make the transition less painful for people.

The layoff package seems fairly generous:

- "Settlement - We will pay 3 months of compensation for all departing employees, and more for those with longer tenure."

- "Bonus. We will pay a prorated bonus to all eligible departing employees"

- "Individual & career support. We’ll do our best to connect departing employees with other companies and professional networks as well as other useful sources that may help you navigate through this difficult time"

- "Immigration support. We know that this situation is particularly tough for departing employees who currently work on a visa. We have made individual arrangements for you in order to accommodate better for your particular situation"

I think 3 months is the statutory minimum in many if not most of the places they employ people, if I'm not mistaken.

Doubtful - they have done enough acquisitions to have tons of US employees.

They are offering literally all of these things

I don't get why people on this site have such a strong reaction to CEO's expressing sadness and regret when they lay people off

I think the visceral reaction some of us have has to do with making this about the poor CEO (who is still a multimillionaire, and still has a job) and not the people who lost their jobs. I would hope he feels terrible, even if it's 100% the only choice to keep the business afloat (which is far from clear, but is at least possible), but he can keep that to himself.

Yes.

It's reasonable to assume that any somewhat socially competent person doesn't relish the idea of letting people go.

That should be a given.

And taking responsibility is just restating the fact that the CEO has all the power while (in this case) nothing the individual employee could do would have prevented it.

The CEO did not fire himself for failing and is (probably) still wealthy and doesn't need to potentially uproot his life.

"Sorry" doesn't buy you anything.

It's a given which is why every layoff statement includes it. It would seem socially incompetent for the CEO to not take the blame

" The decision today is more painful for the Birds leaving than it will be for me and I won't pretend I understand what they will go through. I alone made the mistakes leading up to this and I should have seen it coming earlier"

I just don't read this as making it about himself. I also don't understand how you could write one of these without having a "I fucked up and feel really bad about it" sections. He should just announce the layoffs with no context about how the company got here under his leadership?

The original comment on this tree has much more "about me" language directly quoted. His legacy, he would sacrifice anything, scar on his soul, etc. I agree though you can't just say nothing, you have to take ownership and express empathy.

These messages are hard to balance; he is writing a message to the laid off staff, the staff staying on, and the public.

The "I'm sad about this" is aimed at the remaining staff. He wants to retain the appearance of being empathetic and authentic as a leader. But in doing so he comes across as self-centred to the other audiences.

> (including health insurance!)

I think they’re European?

> (including health insurance!)

MessageBird seems located in The Netherlands. For those living in NL health insurance costs €1500-1800/year & deductibles €385/year, employed or on social benefits. They are never paid by the employer.

A CEO is also an employee, who works for the owner(s) of the company. They're also going to have to answer for the company's poor performance.

That is a big cut, unusual for a European company.

I wonder whether there is already a 'Musk effect' at play. His taking the axe to the payroll in unprecedented style at Twitter might have pushed the boundaries as to what is acceptable to do, so has increase the range of permissible action for CEO's. 25-30% cuts might now be the new normal, rather than 5-10%

Meh, blaming Elon sounds like click bait narrative.

Tech valuations and headcount grew ridiculously in the last few years. Ex: FB head count: https://www.statista.com/statistics/273563/number-of-faceboo...

If people are surprised at the size of layoffs, I'm guessing its their first recession?

It’s much too soon to judge the impact of the way Elon just discarded 80-90% of Twitter’s technical workforce (layoffs + voluntary departures). The only product change he has successfully implemented is unbanning people who violated the rules in the past, which is a change requiring no engineers to implement.

> Elon just discarded 80-90% of Twitter’s technical workforce (layoffs + voluntary departures)

Is that the current estimate? I'm curious, but I kind of lost track after the Saturday-of-code-reviews thing.

It was first 50% of the 7500 initial and then another 50% of the remaining. Then add all this Code Review nonsense and you can make the argument that at least 80% of the original are gone. I wonder how many he has brought in though. There is too much muddying of the waters to get a realistic estimate of people joining Twitter because they want to be part of Musk's "vision". It could be anything from hundreds of people joining to just 1 (George Hotz lol).

It's anecdotal, but a friend of mine working on the frontend told me his org of 150 engineers lost 2/3 in the original layoff (leaving 50), and then about 80% of those remaining declined the hardcore ultimatum (leaving 10, a mere 6.7% of the starting strength). H1B's are the majority of those remaining.

I work for one of the European scale ups, we did 20 - 30 % cuts (even in Engineering) back during summer.

If he's successful with Twitter it will add credibility to the idea that most high margin SaaS/social companies don't need as many people as they currently have, yes.

And they certainly don't from a theoretical perspective. Whether they can successfully transition from inefficient+large to efficient+small is another question

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