I’m glad to see this every time. It helps set the industry standard, and companies that don’t give fair consideration will be labelled.
I remember a company I was once at had laid off some people in pretty bad faith (required them to relocate, and let them go after they moved across the continent) and the announcement was along the lines of “we understand the inconvenience so allow us to be generous with 4 weeks severance”, which was absolutely a slap in the face considering that’s barely two months of rent in this city.
Shopify still a valuable business! It's a success story in a volatile space. So if they want to maximize their growth during good times, it's almost inevitable they'll have to walk back some of the earlier steps they made during fallow times.
So I would put Shopify in a different league altogether than RIM or Nortel... these latest moves in fact may help them avoid the fate of the others.
From what I've seen, they're nowhere near becoming a stodgy old slow-to-change corporation. The people I met last week at RailsConf all seem energetic and innovative, and I second the idea that ecommerce is a tough & crowded market and the fact that they've risen to the top says a lot about the company focus and culture.
I sell online (but on marketplaces, not my own website) so try to follow the space. Shopify is known as the company you go to for quickly setting up an ecommerce storefront. Yes, there are competitors, but Shopify seems to be the brand name in the space. Unlike Apple vis-a-vis Blackberry, there doesn't seem to be great risk of someone coming in with revolutionary technology and immense market reach that upsets the field overnight; we're coming up to 30 years after the release of Netscape, after all.
> On May 6th, 2020 Shopify was the most valuable Canadian company. Why Canadian tech is cursed? Nortel, Blackberry, Shopify ...
It's interesting how Canada has exactly one globally prominent tech company, no more, no less; as one falls, the next arises. While having one is certainly better than the average of zero for non-US developed countries, and having each be in a different sector is also good, I suspect that each also benefits/benefited from being the hot tech company that those in Canada join if they didn't/couldn't move to the US. (I've seen others mention Shopify being known for lowballing salaeies.)
Unfortunate, but these layoffs are not surprising given economic conditions.
It's a sizable number of affected roles, so hopefully this is a one-and-done for now. (A drip, drip, drip over a year and a half is the worst IMO with respect to morale and uncertainty for the remaining folks. And then you end up losing some of the people you want to keep because they view their employment environment as unstable...)
> Part of the cuts come from Shopify's sale of its logistics division to Flexport, based in Silicon Valley, Calif.
It's really surprising to me that the company that laid off 20% of their staff is now buying an entire logistics division off of Shopify. I actually interviewed at Flexport earlier this year, and it was not the greatest experience (delays on interviewing, interviewers who didn't know who I was or what role I was interviewing for, one on one interviews where the other party wasn't even paying attention). The week I interviewed they ended up announcing the layoffs, so I just assumed they weren't serious about hiring.
Shopify is not reporting significant income from this transaction, instead I think they are just getting shares in Flexport. I wonder why this is worth 13% of Flexport to get this asset?
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 7.7 ms ] threadIt's a bummer that they're having to make mass layoffs (again), but I'm glad they're offering decent severance.
I remember a company I was once at had laid off some people in pretty bad faith (required them to relocate, and let them go after they moved across the continent) and the announcement was along the lines of “we understand the inconvenience so allow us to be generous with 4 weeks severance”, which was absolutely a slap in the face considering that’s barely two months of rent in this city.
Official announcement: https://news.shopify.com/important-team-and-business-changes
So I would put Shopify in a different league altogether than RIM or Nortel... these latest moves in fact may help them avoid the fate of the others.
Yeah, it's valuation got way ahead of itself during the COVID-19 Internet Gold Rush. Huge valuation, lack of focus, is normal.
It's still a great tool.
It's interesting how Canada has exactly one globally prominent tech company, no more, no less; as one falls, the next arises. While having one is certainly better than the average of zero for non-US developed countries, and having each be in a different sector is also good, I suspect that each also benefits/benefited from being the hot tech company that those in Canada join if they didn't/couldn't move to the US. (I've seen others mention Shopify being known for lowballing salaeies.)
It's a sizable number of affected roles, so hopefully this is a one-and-done for now. (A drip, drip, drip over a year and a half is the worst IMO with respect to morale and uncertainty for the remaining folks. And then you end up losing some of the people you want to keep because they view their employment environment as unstable...)
It's really surprising to me that the company that laid off 20% of their staff is now buying an entire logistics division off of Shopify. I actually interviewed at Flexport earlier this year, and it was not the greatest experience (delays on interviewing, interviewers who didn't know who I was or what role I was interviewing for, one on one interviews where the other party wasn't even paying attention). The week I interviewed they ended up announcing the layoffs, so I just assumed they weren't serious about hiring.
* https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/11/flexport-to-lay-off-20percen...