What Founders Can Learn From Anjuna’s Layoffs And Recovery

In 2021, Anjuna Security was increasing fast, hiring aggressively, and chasing a marketplace that seemed limitless. By nan extremity of that year, nan venture-backed cybersecurity institution had scaled to astir 75 employees, building retired sales, customer success, and support teams successful anticipation of continued hypergrowth.

Then 2022 hit.

As nan marketplace turned, endeavor clients became harder to land. Like galore startups building astatine that time, Anjuna was overextended and underfunded. So nan institution was forced to make a difficult determination and laid disconnected a information of its staff, past conducted different information of layoffs months later. 

Cutting costs was only portion of nan challenge. The harder mobility was really to rebound and support nan remaining squad members motivated. 

Ayal Yogev, nan CEO and co-founder of Anjuna, joined Isabelle Johannessen connected TechCrunch’s Build Mode to talk really nan institution survived nan volatile marketplace by acting quickly, making cuts pinch compassion, and learning from early missteps.

One of nan reasons Anjuna was capable to strengthen 2 rounds of layoffs was that nan institution had already put successful nan clip to build a beardown soul culture, anchored successful a elemental idea. “We person only 1 connection erstwhile it comes to culture, and that’s care,” Yogev said. “We attraction astir our employees. We attraction astir our customers.”

Rather than treating civilization arsenic a group of absurd values, nan institution focused connected accordant behavior. Internally, that meant transparency and communicating intelligibly astir what was happening and why. Externally, it meant supporting departing labor beyond severance, from sharing occupation opportunities done investor networks to ensuring continued entree to benefits for illustration healthcare.

Crucially, nan institution avoided communal pitfalls that erode spot during layoffs for illustration prolonged uncertainty, impersonal processes, aliases soundlessness from leadership. Instead, decisions were made quickly, and conversations were handled directly. 

Even so, nan effect was real. A 2nd information of layoffs made rebuilding spot much difficult. But nan civilization that was already established shaped really nan remaining squad responded. Rather than focusing connected blame, nan accent was connected learning: what went wrong, and really to debar repeating it.

“There’s benignant of 2 things group do, for illustration nan benignant of worst companies are looking for personification to blasted and that ever ends up creating a civilization of group are conscionable trying to not make mistakes,” Yogev said. “Just creates a civilization of blaming, which is conscionable wholly counterproductive, right?”

Today, Anjuna is rebuilding pinch a different approach. Hiring is much deliberate. Sales maturation is tied intimately to existent demand. And caller tools, including AI, are helping nan squad run much efficiently without overexpanding.

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Isabelle Johannessen is our host. Build Mode is produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience Development is led by Morgan Little. And a typical acknowledgment to nan Foundry and Cheddar video teams.