Startup layoffs are back, and the damage is starting to add up.
Back in early 2020, an online layoff tracker — Layoffs.FYI — was built to collect and tabulate startup layoffs. Cribbing from media reports and other sources, the data source was a hot property during the early-COVID startup downturn.
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As quickly as it rose in prominence, however, it seemed to fade. Startups and their backing investors realized shortly after cuts swept the industry that most upstart tech companies were going to be at least all right during the pandemic, slowing the rate of layoffs. Software companies wound up enjoying record demand, from both customers and investors, eventually fueling the 2021 SaaS bubble.
Now the bad times are back, if in a different form.
Back in 2020, we saw the startup market crumble in what felt like days; the current downturn, in contrast, has been building since late 2021. With that in mind, the gradual rate of layoffs thi …