DoubleDutch trimmed 40
percent of its workforce this month as the company downshifts in pursuit of
profitability. This is the second round of layoffs for the company in six
months. DoubleDutch cut approximately a quarter of its staff last July.
CEO Lawrence Coburn told BTN that the cuts were strategic and
that the company is coming off what he called "an important year" in
shifting the company's client focus to enterprise customers with strategic
objectives that marry well with the DoubleDutch data product. "We learned that
we had a good segment of our business that was really healthy, but a
non-trivial segment that was unhealthy. By unhealthy, I mean high churn and bad
product market fit. So back in July [with the first round of layoffs], we
started to shed that portion of the business to focus on the customers that
really care about data to inform other business channels," he said.
Engaging enterprise clients put different demands on the
company but also relieved others, Coburn said. "For DoubleDutch's entire
history, we invested heavily in handholding our customers to help them
configure the product, promote it, etc. That's how we filled in gaps in our
product but also [addressed] the lack of sophistication in our customers," he said. "But
now, our clients have people who know our product as well as we do. We realized
that onboarding was the wrong place to invest, so we took the opportunity to
refocus our resources and shift toward profitability."
That said, DoubleDutch won't be against raising additional investor
funds, Coburn said. "But we want to control our destiny, raise on our own
terms and with a strong cash position."
Cvent-Lanyon Merger
Precipitates Layoffs
Meanwhile,
following the merger of Cvent and Lanyon, layoffs are underway at the Dallas
office, which had served as Lanyon's headquarters. The company let approximately 100 workers
go on Jan. 17.
A spokesperson for the company underscored that eliminating
certain positions was expected with the merger of two such similar firms as
Cvent and Lanyon. "Unfortunately,
as is common in a merger, operational redundancies and overlaps were found and
some of those positions from Lanyon were eliminated. These decisions were not
made lightly, and we are actively working to help those employees transition to
new roles in other Vista companies."
Vista Equity
Partners, Cvent's new private equity owner as of late November, owns a
multitude of cloud-based software-as-a-service and data companies. Cvent layoffs
were largely local to the Dallas office, and the search for new positions within Vista for
impacted employees also will focus on the local area.
Unofficial reports from outside Cvent said layoffs extended
somewhat beyond redundancies and into client-facing functions.
Still,
the Cvent spokesperson pointed out that the meetings technology company is
hiring aggressively, despite reorganization. "The company continues to
grow, and we have more than 250 open positions around the world," he said.