Airtime, the video startup from Evernote’s founder Phil Libin, has laid off dozens of employees, TechCrunch has learned, and Airtime confirmed.
According to the company, 25 people were let go from the 58-person team — a change Airtime described as “bigger than usual.”
While Airtime characterizes the departures as part of its typical seasonal approach to employment, sources inside the company said staff were surprised by the announcement. Many were under the impression the startup intended to raise funds this year and were previously told no cuts were planned, they said.
Formerly known as mmhmm, Airtime was launched in 2020 by Libin, whose Evernote, a note-taking startup, was valued at nearly a billion at its height before being sidelined by newer competitors like Notion. (The company later sold to Bending Spoons in 2022 for a decidedly smaller figure.)
First launched amid the COVID pandemic, when all office work had suddenly shifted to video, Airtime today offers two key tools for online meetings. Its “AirTime Creator” lets users present a deck while appearing on screen at the same time, while its “AirTime Camera” allows users to create custom looks to stand out in meetings.
Image Credits:Airtime
The startup introduced a “seasons”-focused employment structure in late 2022, following a layoff of around 10%-15% of the staff, which had capped the company’s headcount at 100 while it searched for product-market fit.
The idea was introduced so staff wouldn’t face any surprise firings or layoffs. Instead, the company would decide roughly every six months who would be invited back for the next “season.” This plan allowed Airtime to give staff a longer heads-up if they weren’t going to return, so they had time to seek other employment. And ideally, employees would work throughout a full season before choosing to quit.
Such a structure, as you can imagine, was controversial. But until now, the deal had been honored on both ends.
The recent layoffs have frustrated staff because, typically, their “season” would have ended on the last day of June, according to what their managers told them. But impacted employees have been given an end date of Friday, June 6. That means their severance covers at least some of what would have normally been offered if they were employed through the period they were promised under the “seasons” arrangement.
Airtime declined to respond to questions about severance.
The layoffs themselves were hashed out by leadership over two 8-hour sessions at Nobu in Palo Alto, sources claim. Staff were told on Tuesday, June 3, while their managers were told the night prior.
An unknown number of independent contractors were also let go, they said.
As to what necessitated the cuts, company insiders said Airtime’s product never really took off and experienced quite a bit of churn. User acquisition ad spend also cost Airtime high tens of thousands of dollars per month, and employees report that Libin was often absent from day-to-day decisions as he focused his attention on his restaurant in Arkansas.
Airtime, meanwhile, said the larger cuts had to do with the company’s changing focus.
In an emailed statement attributed to Libin, Airtime said the following:
“Since 2022, Airtime has operated on a ‘seasonal’ structure: two five-and-a-half-month work seasons per year, with a shared two-week break in between. Near the end of each season, we decide who comes back based on plans for the following season. The company invites some people back, and they decide whether they want to return. There’s a mutual commitment that people who return will not leave mid-season and that the company won’t terminate anyone mid-season other than for serious misbehavior. We treat everyone who departs at the end of a season equally, whether or not they were invited back. Product releases, hiring, departures, promotions, and other events are also timed around the seasons to provide people with a predictable cadence. We’re currently in our sixth seasonal transition, and we’ve made changes to the team every time. This change is bigger than usual because our focus changed more than usual. Of 58 employees, we’ve asked 33 to come back next season to work on our new products and partnerships.”
To date, Airtime has raised nearly $235 million in venture funding across multiple early-stage rounds.
Some of those funds were used for M&A, as with the deal to acquire filter-maker Mexmix in 2020, then acquire Macro, a maker of filters and reactions for online meetings, in 2021. The latter deal was focused on bringing in founders with product chops, Ankith Harathi and John Keck. (The pair has since left Airtime, according to their LinkedIn profiles.) Airtime parent All Turtles also brought in Alexander Pashintsev, who previously worked on AI at Evernote, but Airtime itself has not yet made a significant AI push.
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