Will Goldberg trade people for short term profitability?
Pink slips could be in the not too distant future for half of Jobster’s 145 person workforce according to unnamed sources that have been whispering to GigaOM and John Cook, the Venture Capital beat reporter for the Seattle Post Intelligencer.
Jason Goldberg, the founder and CEO of Jobster had this to say on his blog about the whole story on December 22nd.
“truth is that i promised our shareholders that we would drive this company towards profitability in 2007 and that’s a promise i intend to keep. period.”
It looks like 2007 may bring interesting times over at Jobster. With a swap in the chief bean counter position now in place, and promises of a profitable 2007 swirling around the investor boardroom, Jason Goldberg will have to test his breathy vision against the invariable loss in trust that only layoffs can create.
Here’s my problem with all this.
Layoffs shouldn’t come easy, and they’re not part of any good business plan for a start up when revenue is growing in leaps and bounds as Jobster’s are. If layoffs were to happen now, it would signal to me that Jason Goldberg, his executive team, and his investors have screwed up. If 2007 profitability were a litmus test, as Jason declared earlier this year, then perhaps the hiring freeze that Jobster instituted recently could have come a little earlier? It’s hard for me to believe that Jason’s people strategy or go to plan would include a cannon fodder scenario (a military term for people being used as an expendable commodity) but you never know. Is Jason Goldberg a better BizDev talent than manager? It’s a pretty common scenario with founders. The vision, skill, and gumption that it takes to start a company (and make no mistake Jason has plenty of this secret sauce) don’t necessarily translate to managing a company successfully. The switch in CFO could have more to do with this than you may think. A smart board will push a visionary like Jason to surround themselves with the management talent to support the long term success of the business. And a smart leader will do the same thing and Jason is known for his smarts. It could be that Jason’s investors are giving him no other choice, either by an outright edict or in a nut twisting investor pressure that only $48 million dollars in investor funding can bring about.
So we’re left with three scenarios to mull over until Jobster makes its real plans public.
- Jobster management sucks
- Jobster’s investors have gotten cold feet and Jobster’s management have no choice but to placate them with major cost cutting
- These rumors are all a load of crap brought about by a disgruntled employee/s.
I’d have to favor number two, with a sprinkling of number three thrown in for good measure. What makes me worry about the rumors is the tone of Jason’s post that I linked to earlier, which struck me as condescending and defensive.
“truth is that i promised our shareholders that we would drive this company towards profitability in 2007 and that’s a promise i intend to keep. period.
you ever had to do that? it’s tough stuff. especially when you are in growth mode. but that’s what it takes to build a valuable business.
…and that’s what we’re doing over here at jobster.
what are you doing?”
Technorati Tags: Jobster, Jobster Layoffs
9 comments ↓
[…] EXCELER8ion - Is it time for Jobster to disrupt itself? - view/add comments […]
My first thought when I saw the interior of the Jobster office in Seattle was - oh gee, this looks a lot like the start up I worked for in the late 90s. Unlike a lot of startups that have learned from the first bubble, my impression was that Jobster had not. No surprise here. And I don’t think this sistuation translates to a larger problem - i.e., bubble 2.0.
[…] our next call comes from julian from florida who asks: why would a young company like jobster care about profits? […]
[…] While everyone is inhaling to blah-blah-blah Jobster over the rumored downsizing, dehumanizing, rightsizing, realigning and pocket lining of the business – all probably in the works, concurrently no doubt – I would venture to make a couple of suggestions as to where we should look for the inspiration in what is about to unfold… […]
[…] Well, there aren’t too many CEOs I can claim to be buddies with. However, Jason Goldberg comes very close. I admit I haven’t ever met the man, but you do build a connection with some fellow bloggers and Jason is one of the many people I consider my ‘blogging buddies’.So when I read Julian’s post and thence to Cook’s blog and GigaOm, I hope that whatever pressures are on Jason as CEO, and whatever decision he and the rest of jobster management take, I really really hope that layoffs are the final resort to achieving profitability.Stockholders who’ve given you millions of dollars can be ruthless in their demands, and disgruntled employees and wary competitors (who are Jobster’s real competitors? Not Monster or the big job boards, that’s for sure. Neither are vertical search engines like Indeed and SimplyHired) can use the weapon of social media to really turn on the heat. The comments on Cook’s blog post are quite personal in nature and don’t throw any real light on the issue.Jason is the blogging CEO of a web 2.0 company. I hope he can use the power of social media to clearly spell out Jobster’s focus in the coming weeks. He must address the issue of rumors of layoffs with more clarity.Jobster’s tools promise employers to reach the right people for the right job, and for that reason I wish it becomes profitable in 2007 and reaches the shores of Asia soon. We need such tools.What I would like to see more is less focus on becoming the ‘myspace of recruiting’ to more enterprise focussed tools for recruiters.Good luck, Jason and the rest of the team. […]
good summary of the rumor
[…] This posts sums up how unprofessionally this layoff rumor was handled by Jobster executives:Quoted: Although a minor communication crisis was already brewing, Goldberg made it big with a post that asked people to “put down your pencils …. calm …down, relax a bit, and have a nice holiday. We’ve got no news to give ya before the new year.” From an internal communication perspective, posting this was paramount to the captain of the Titanic asking passengers to refrain from dropping lifeboats in the water until the ship’s quartet finished his favorite song.Dot This!1 Comment (Show)PermalinkJobster, Take My Breath Awayjoe | Shared With: Everyone - yesterday | jobster, business, layoffs Quoted: We are about to witness a case study in transparency and how authenticity can make or break a CEO.Dot This!Add CommentPermalinkEXCELER8ion - Is it time for Jobster to disrupt itself?joe | Shared With: Everyone - 2 days ago | me, jobster, work, layoffs […]
[…] Het Jobster evangelie wil Jason ook in Europa geen prediken. Maar het lijkt dat daaraan een abrupt einde is gekomen. Want hoewel volgens Jason de groei nog steeds boven verwachting is, wordt onder de streep nog alles in rood geschreven. En dat is voor de investeerders blijkbaar voldoende reden om maatregelen te eisen, althans volgens de geruchten in de blogsphere. […]
[…] http://gauteg.blogspot.com/2006/12/on-jobster-and-profitability.htmlhttp://www.exceler8ion.com/2006/12/27/is-it-time-for-jobster-to-disrupt-itself/ […]
a lot of buzz about it
Dotcom bubble 2.0? Rumor has it I could get laid off next week! Comments [1] Read more linkage posts…
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