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- Hacker News
- There are so many contradictions in this statement that either the person who wrote it is completely muddle-headed, or just a bad liar.
> Nothing about our core business has changed – it remains strong and consistent
a few paragraphs later
> But our transformation is going to take time
and the next paragraph
> At the same time, the market in which we operate has undergone profound change over the last 6 months. We need to adjust our cost structure
So is the business strong and consistent, or is it facing a rapidly-changing market, requiring that the business transform and adjust it's cost structure?
> To be clear about the impact of AI on today’s decision: we are not making the above changes because we believe AI replaces humans.
A few paragraphs later
> AI has fundamentally transformed the tech industry, though, including how we work, how we build products, how we communicate, and more. That does have an impact on how we operate and organize.
So do you think AI doesn't replace humans, or do you think that you'll need fewer humans because AI will be doing more of the work?
- Nothing in there contradicts. A business that works well today may not work well tomorrow; it's management's job to change the business to better meet future conditions.
> or do you think that you'll need fewer humans because AI will be doing more of the work?
My bet is this one. To be fair, it isn't exactly an unpopular opinion. If I were starting a business today I'd plan to hire far fewer programmers than I would have just 2-3 years ago.
by smeeth - If we throw all the arguments at the wall, one must stick right?
- AI prompt: “Write a melodramatic layoff announcement that blames our problems on vague market/economic changes, suggests we need to transform, yet reassures investors that business fundamentals are strong.”by ryandrake
- They have 465 employees? That seems like a lot for what Patreon is.by Gareth321
- So it seems you are in favour of Right-sizing.
- Why does someone always say this about a tech company when they have layoffs, regardless of company size?
465 employees is not that large. Patreon handles millions of transactions. They need support, sales, engineers, etc. If anything I'm surprised they're not well over 1000.
by driverdan - Well, they _had_ 465 employees...by darknavi
- They provide a lot of services and support to their bigger creators.
Last I heard they also do their own payment processing, which is a substantial technical problem.
by natbennett - Yeah, they are not Discord, Gumroad, OnlyFans or Fansly.by anticensor
- Just going to lay this here: https://www.marketplace.org/story/2016/06/13/profit-ibm
IBM went seven decades without layoffs. Yes, part of that was the unique situation of post WWII America. But read TJ Watson Jr.'s words - they really took seriously the fact that they weren't just a business - they had a responsibility to people who worked for them. IBM went through a LOT of transformation in those seven decades BTW - they somehow found ways to re-deploy people in their growing business each time.
The words of this CEO are about as good as they can be under the circumstances, but all the happy talk about "special, beautiful humans" and "Patreon’s core business is healthy and strong" and "we’re not changing our roadmap or priorities" are obviously self-contradictory. Of course, if your business can't survive with its current headcount, it would be foolish to run it into the ground - then everyone loses. But this doesn't appear to be the case here.
He took a long time to get to the punch line: "AI has fundamentally transformed the tech industry, though, including how we work, how we build products, how we communicate, and more. That does have an impact on how we operate and organize."
So, there it is, finally. Management realized we can do the exact same thing with 20% fewer (more productive) employees. That means the shareholders (including the CEO and the remaining employees), will have a more valuable company. Sorry, we couldn't share this with the 20% we let go, who helped build the company to this point, and we can't even wait for our business to grow into our headcount, which if everything is so rosy, should be a matter of months. So good luck with the "my journey has come to an end, I am so grateful [to have been fired]..." LinkedIn posts!
- I think this is an uncharitable take, and judging by these comments, a pretty common one today on HN – probably because there are less and less founders posting here, and more bitter employees. Patreon isn't IBM, it's not even Google or Amazon. IBM was above even FAANG in its day, it was practically an extension of the US government for decades.
Patreon is in the media/content business. It is perfectly reasonable to think that they have to rethink their company structure with AI completely destroying/changing the way their industry works.
by keiferski - Bottom line: How do these layoffs increase the successful outcome of product launches on the platform in any way?
- In my subjective opinion, they don't. Layoffs almost always cause an atmosphere where taking risks is disincentivized.by ricardobayes
- The negative metric is more important - if you can cut staff costs by 20% with only 5% reduction in revenue/innovation that’s a win from an investor’s perspective.by spacebanana7
- Well if the company goes out of business because its not making enough profit then all product launches will cease.by fourseventy
- i think the goal is to increase profit by reducing operating expenses, not to increase the successful outcome of product launches.
- Upvoting this so more people see how cringey it's written.by jcfrei
- I'm the opposite - I wish people wrote like this more often. Basic humanity needs to make a comeback before we all kill each other.
With the enormous caveat that this writing is honest, and I imagine you are implicitly including "it's not honest" in your grievance, which is a totally reasonable guess. We rightly assume CEOs are usually not honest when it comes to sympathizing with employees.
- >Creators are earning billions of dollars each year on Patreon, and those earnings have continued to exhibit steady, strong growth.
>Creators, members, revenue, and processing volume continue to show strong, consistent growth every month.
lol strong consistent growth -> 20% layoff
- He sees what is coming. Crowd funding HAS to be dropping off as people choose between feeding their family or their favorite content creators (the creator will be fine as they have lots of other patrons is a guilt-free rationalization too).by hajile
- I watched this dudes youtube channel where he makes music for years before I ever knew he was the CEO of pateron. It was a bit of a wtf moment when I found out.by fourseventy
- Decent keyboard player tooby recursive
- Wow, I follow his band on Instagram. Had no idea he was the CEO of patreon.by jonasmst
- Appears to be a full time musician and a part time CEO.by itbeho
- He's playing the piano in this video too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiShsfvbFUAby alexpotato
- What is it with companies doing mass-layoffs and stating no reasons whatsoever, in fact giving reasons why there's no need:
> Second, Patreon’s core business is healthy and strong, and we’re going to be a rock for creators for decades to come. Hundreds of thousands of creators rely on Patreon for their livelihoods, businesses, ...
> We’re reducing the size of our team by 20%, or ...
by spwa4 - I assume it is legal reasons.by blcknight
- > core business is healthy and strong
Thst is valid reason to layoff people. If there is no mess to clean, you do not need that many cleaners.
- Read between the lines. "This thing ain't getting bigger so everyone we needed to get it here but don't need to keep it going has to go." Like a game studio laying half the team off once the product ships.