Shopify to lay off 10% of workers in broad shake-up

Re:Shopify to lay off 10% of workers in broad shake-up by hackitup7 on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @10:01AM (#32238385)

Historically enterprise SaaS with strong product/market fit has been (comparatively) safe. Companies tend to get hit in order of consumer > SMB > mid-market > enterprise. The above does not apply if you're a high burn organization that overhired, those jobs are at risk in every industry except maybe the government.

(Of course nowhere is entirely safe, even in good times)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Shopify to lay off 10% of workers in broad shake-up by jameshart on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @01:43PM (#32241350)

In a downturn, enterprise SaaS vendors have to cut back on development and hold on to the customers they have. They aren’t winning new big contracts, and losing a few big customers could be fatal.

And when you cut back on roadmap on a product like that, consolidation starts looking sensible. That’s when you get bought out by Oracle or ADP or someone.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Shopify to lay off 10% of workers in broad shake-up by hackitup7 on Thursday July 28, 2022 @09:56AM (#32264330)

Yeah I mean bad things can happen to anyone, but relatively speaking enterprise tends to be safer all else being equal. A great consumer company is still probably safer than a decent enterprise SaaS company.

"losing a few big customers could be fatal" For sure, but there's also a long history of enterprise companies weathering this just find (eg Twilio famously churning Uber). There often is just less pullback than one would think as well, it's typical to see 3+ year contracts in enterprise.

[ Parent | on HN ]