Patreon, a platform that helps creators to generate more income from their work, has laid off 80 employees, or around 17 percent of its total headcount, amid the global economic slowdown and fears of a recession. The company is closing its Berlin office, which housed sales and marketing employees. Patreon is centralizing those operations in the US. A Dublin office is also shutting down and Patreon will offer nine engineers there the option to relocate to the US in order to centralize resources. An office in Porto, Portugal will remain open to provide support to creators and users in Europe.
The layoffs have impacted four teams — Go-to-Market, Operations, Finance and People — CEO Jack Conte wrote in a letter to employees. Patreon will offer affected workers at least three months of severance and those in the US will receive COBRA healthcare coverage through the end of the year. The company will also offer resources to help them find a new job and waive a one-year equity vesting cliff for pending stock options.
Last week, Patreon let go five members of its security team for different reasons. Conte said this “was part of a longer-term strategy to continue distributing security responsibilities across our entire engineering team, bring new areas of expertise into Patreon internally, and continue partnering with external experts.” However, he noted that the company is ramping up its investment in security.
Conte wrote that the layoffs are part of a restructuring that will see Patreon plow more resources into its product, engineering and design departments. However, the company is scaling back recruitment and the size of its operations.
“I’m more confident than ever that the world needs a better economic system for creative people, and Patreon will keep building that system for creators over the decades ahead,” Conte said. “However, the pandemic introduced volatility to the broader trend, starting with a rapid acceleration during COVID lockdowns. In response, we built an operating plan to support this outsized growth, but as the world began recovering from the pandemic and enduring a broader economic slowdown, that plan is no longer the right path forward for Patreon.”
This is just the latest in a long line of recent layoffs at notable tech companies. Apple, Google, Meta, Peloton, Netflix, Snap, Paypal, Unity and others have all reduced their headcount or pumped the brakes on recruitment in recent months.