CEO and founder Aamir Baig informed staff of the news on Friday. In total, 216 workers are being laid off, which is about 17 percent of the company’s workforce. “It’s not your fault, it’s my fault,” Baig said in a note to staff on the company’s website. The article was founded in 2011 before being released to the public two years later. The company says it became profitable in 2015, and in a press release from March this year, it says its revenue grew 45 percent between 2020 and 2021. This is a common trend for many Internet-focused companies, which saw increasing demand for their services in the early days of the pandemic as markets moved online. The article benefited from consumers who had more time and money to spend on fixing up the homes they were stuck in during the COVID lockdown. But this trend has changed direction recently. “We expected the online shopping trend to continue,” Baig said. “That didn’t happen and it has since returned to pre-COVID trends.”
Layoffs at internet-focused companies
That’s similar to the language e-commerce giant Shopify used last week when it announced it would lay off 10 percent of its staff. Like many internet-focused companies, Shopify’s revenue has grown aggressively in 2020 and 2021. The business has increased staff to maintain the assumption that growth will continue. But growth has slowed to the point where it is now at the same levels as it would have been had the pandemic not happened. Baig’s note suggests a similar trend. “Our financial projections showed that we were operating the business at a size larger than current demand would sustain. Simply put, we were living beyond our means. I needed to resize our business to restore financial viability. of strength to us.” Baig said all affected staff – known as “particles” in the Article – will have access to their benefits for a period of time. They will also be given severance packages and other support services and will be allowed to own company equipment such as laptops. The news is the latest in a string of layoffs announced recently by Canadian startups. Fellow Vancouver startup Unbounce laid off 20% of its staff this week, and Toronto-based financial services firm ClearCo recently laid off 125 people. Earlier this summer, fintech firm WealthSimple laid off 159 people, or about 13 percent of its staff.
