I joined Chainalysis during their hyper growth period when they went from 200 to 800 people in just 1 year. I very much bought into the product, their mission, and their values. Shortly after I joined, there were layoffs and it was unsettling. I thought it was bizarre they would hire so many people then start letting people go. This happened 3 times during my stay there and the focus and priorities continuously changed. I suppose that is normal for a startup but too much changes for a company trying to IPO. They hired seasoned professionals to help with all this as I understand earlier on, there were a lot of employees that were originally there and this was their first job or very green. I was part of their most recent 15% staff reduction. We were all forewarned by the CEO through a very cold and impersonal message - change in direction (again), must reduce costs so letting people go, and the business will go on. I suppose it's business as usual but I have to wonder what kind of decisions, strategically, being made at the top. They went from a high valuation to just not that great within a year! I suppose the layoff is a bit of a blessing and it would have happened eventually. I think just hard to stomach when you are working your tail off and suddenly the team is eliminated. The notice and even the meeting with HR was impersonal (she read from a script) when they are impacting people's lives and families.
