Vancouver-based tech company Thinkific Labs has announced plans to let go 76 employees in a second round of layoffs.
The company aims to reduce its expense structure with the latest layoffs. In March 2022, the company laid off 100 employees after initial signs of an economic downturn.
During the first round of layoffs, CEO Greg Smith had mentioned that difficulties in raising funds had prompted the need to conserve cash.
Thinkific is a platform that helps people to create and sell digital learning products. The company raised 184 million CAD when it went public in 2021.
“We closed the fourth quarter as expected, and with the initiatives we announced today, profitability is in sight,” Smith said today of the new round of layoffs.
“Having said that, any decision that affects people is not easy to make, and we understand the impact it has on both the Thinkers to whom we are saying goodbye, as well as the ones who are staying.
“We are grateful to our team for creating our exceptional culture, industry-leading products, and for working to ensure the success of our Creators.
“Creator success remains our north star, and we will continue to focus our efforts on building the most innovative products, features, and tools that make it easy for our customers to build and scale amazing digital learning businesses,” Smith added.
Over 18,000 people have lost their jobs so far in tech this year, according to layoff tracking website, Layoffs.fyi. The website puts the number of jobs lost in 2022 as over 154,000.
President of Thinkific Steve Krenzer added: “My mandate as Thinkific’s President is clear: to drive profitability and growth. We must concentrate our efforts on the projects that deliver the greatest impact for our customers and our business.”
“The steps we have taken today, while difficult, will sharpen our focus, and are critical to us executing on our long-term business strategy.”
Read Smith’s full letter to the Thinkific team below:
To the Thinkific Team,
Core to our principles as a company are leading with kindness, acting with integrity, and being transparent in everything we do.
In that spirit, I wanted to ensure that you heard from me the why, why now, and what’s next with respect to the changes we are making today.
The why
As we continue to refocus and reshape Thinkific to accelerate our growth, the time has come to return to profitability. To do that, we needed to make some hard decisions on people, programs and investments. This resulted in us making the difficult decision to say goodbye to 76 Thinkers today.
I firmly believe that making the necessary changes to reach profitability by the end of 2023 was the right decision for us, but that does not change the impact it has on Thinkers that we are saying goodbye to today, or those who are staying.
We value every member of the team. You have all contributed to our success to date. Each of you has helped in our constant pursuit to help those with knowledge, passion or expertise to share it with the world and build their businesses while doing so. Everything we do here at Thinkific is about supporting the success of our Creators, and each of you has been an important part of that effort.
The why now
We are in the enviable position to have a business that is strong, stable and growing. We have a solid cash position that will allow us to invest in the future and manage through economic cycles.
However, we must be responsible with that cash. In order to support our team and invest in innovation for the benefit of our customers, we are required to act. While there are multiple paths to profitability, we felt this swift action was better than a prolonged approach. Acting now sets us up best to accelerate our growth, help more customers grow, and take care of each member of our team.
Here is what will happen today and this week:
We are deeply committed to taking care of each member of our team. We will treat everyone with kindness, respect and compassion. Here are some of the ways we are helping those that are leaving, and we will be meeting with each person one-on-one to discuss, as well as providing more details to you on each of these in writing later today.
- Termination Pay – In lieu of notice, we will be paying termination pay, ensuring that everyone receives a minimum of 12 weeks, which exceeds what is required by law. This will be paid to you along with 4 weeks of vacation pay (minus any time taken in January) via direct deposit within 48 hours of your departure date, the details of which will be provided in your letter.
- Benefits for you and your loved ones – We are extending your health benefits coverage for a period of 12 weeks beyond your last day with Thinkific. This is the maximum allowed by our service provider. This includes health and dental coverage. Note: life insurance, AD&D, long term disability and out of province coverage are limited by our benefits provider to the government-regulated notice period, which will be less than 12 weeks in most cases.
- Access to counselling services for a period of 12 weeks with LifeWorks (our Employee and Family Assistance Program). LifeWorks offers a confidential counselling service for personal support, financial guidance as well as career success services.
- Career Support – While it might not be top of mind right this minute, we also want to give you additional support when it comes to finding your next opportunity. We know many companies out there are going to be lucky to have you on their team. You can opt-in for this help by sending an email to peoplesupport@thinkific.com and our people team will contact you in the following weeks to provide options of support.
Our guiding principles for how we communicated and rolled out this change are:
- Taking care of impacted team members
- Continuing our commitment to diversity
- Being as clear and transparent as possible
- Moving quickly and communicating details only when finalized in order to minimize anxiety
- Meeting 1:1 with each person who will be leaving
At 1:30 pm Pacific Time, I hosted an all-hands meeting where I explained our decision and filled you in on the logistics of today. Immediately following that meeting, anyone who is leaving received a calendar invite to meet with and discuss details with a departmental senior leader.
The final day for the majority of departing team members will be January 15th unless otherwise communicated to you through a working notice period. Basic system access will be available to all until close of business on Friday, January 13th. We felt this would give people time to say goodbye — we understand and respect how important this is.
For everyone staying, you will receive an invite today to an all hands meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) morning to create an opportunity for your questions. Over the next few days you’ll be meeting with your teams to discuss next steps. And very soon we’ll be getting together as teams in person.
To those leaving Thinkific.
I am sorry. This is not your fault. Know that you and your contributions to Thinkific are greatly appreciated and valued. I know you are exceptional individuals and other companies will be lucky to have you on their teams. While your time on this team has come to an end, the friendships you made and your contributions to our culture, customers and mission will live on.
To those staying.
We are resilient and we will get through this together. I am confident in our continued opportunities to grow the business and further empower our Creators.
We will discuss how we move forward in greater detail. However, I want to give everyone time to process today’s announcement. Tomorrow, I will host another all-hands to share more about our future and provide space for you to ask questions.
Right now, I ask that you take time to acknowledge the impact those leaving have had on each of us and our Creators. We’ve learned so much from them over their time here. For that, I know we are all immensely appreciative. Our mission to help Creators is clear, and the contributions of our friends who are leaving will continue through you.
As I’ve shared before, at the core of Thinkific we are about helping people achieve their dreams. You should each be proud of all we have accomplished. Each of you has played a role in getting us to where we are today, as well as in our future. Please don’t ever forget that.
Sincerely,
Greg Smith
CEO, Co-Founder, Thinkific
