Five months ago, Crunchbase CEO Jager McConnell was telling me over Zoom how he had been cutting costs across the company: They had canceled the holiday party. Hiring was frozen. But no layoffs—that would be a last resort.
Obviously, a lot has changed since the end of February—and especially at Crunchbase, the Mayfield and OMERS Ventures-backed startup that has become a go-to provider for data and fundraising information on private companies and investors. Three weeks ago, McConnell posted on LinkedIn that he had laid off at least 49 of the 241 staffers Crunchbase had in March—predominately in its go-to-market teams, including sales and marketing. (In total, 63 employees were impacted—as McConnell says some voluntarily left when he warned employees layoffs were coming a month prior, and others didn’t want to be added to the list he shared on his social media profile.)
