Navigating market uncertainty

2 mins, 36 secs read time

My co-founder Jon and I have always been deeply committed to building Greenhouse into a people-first company that attracts great talent, where the culture is inclusive and supportive so that great talent thrive while they do the best work of their career. That’s why the decision we announced today to lay off nearly 100 people in the U.S. (12% of the company) is such a painful loss.

Deteriorating market conditions

During the 11+ years of strong growth since our founding, we’ve built Greenhouse into a leader in the industry, approaching $200M in revenue and over 7,000 customers across many industries. However, market conditions have deteriorated, and it seems likely we are in a more severe and sustained downturn than anticipated. It therefore became clear that reducing our team was the right course of action to ensure the business remains on a secure footing during this time.

Focusing on our customers

While growth has slowed down, the labor market has remained resilient and talent acquisition continues to be competitive. Many companies have slowed but not stopped hiring, choosing to reduce the size of their recruiting teams and optimizing for a prolonged period of doing more with less. In such an environment, our priority is to invest in our ability to support all of our customers so they continue to realize value from the Greenhouse system. As we made decisions about costs, we focused on reducing sales and marketing, and preserving capacity in customer success, account management, product development and R&D.

Supporting departing colleagues

We know that our colleagues and friends who are leaving us have made a big contribution to Greenhouse’s success. This is a talented group, and we are fortunate to have worked with them. We will do our best to support them during their transition, and do all that we can to help as they find their next opportunity.

In the U.S., every team member leaving will receive eight weeks of severance pay, COBRA coverage through June 2023, accelerated equity vesting through June 2023, an extension of the post-termination exercise period, and we are waiving the one-year equity vesting cliff for those who have been here less than a year.

Our business in EMEA is also affected by the decision to reduce costs. For the next four to five weeks we will be engaging in a consultation process to determine which roles will ultimately be impacted.

Confident in our future

The power and potential of great talent will continue to be what defines the best companies in the world, many of which we’re proud to work with as customers and partners.

For more than a decade, Greenhouse has helped companies of all sizes and in many different industries become great at hiring. Our vision of helping companies hire for what’s next hasn’t changed. Even during this difficult time, we remain steadfast in our mission. Our work continues.

At some point, we know market conditions will change again and turn positive, and we will emerge stronger. Greenhouse is a great company with amazing people and products, and a bright future.