Kickstarter laid off around 40% of its workforce last week, after warning employees two weeks ago that it was experiencing a major drop in projects. A 35% drop in projects was leading to "sharp declines" in pledge volume and revenue, according to an internal memo obtained by The Verge. The company said its $1.27 million in after-tax profit from 2019 had been "reinvested back into the business during the first four months of this year," which we take to mean it was funding losses as projects declined. Executives and board members took a pay cut, and other expense reductions were implemented, but layoffs were required, CEO Aziz Hasan told employees in the memo.
Kickstarter United, certified as the union representing Kickstarter employees in February (see "Kickstarter Employees Vote for Union"), negotiated policies for the layoffs, which included four months of severance for all laid-off employees, four months of health care for employees above the bargaining unit’s media salary and six months for employees below it, recall rights for a full year, a release from the non-compete, and a modification of the non-solicitation clause. In a statement describing the agreement, the union also said that dozens of higher-paid employees volunteered to take layoffs to save jobs and increase pay-outs for lower-paid bargaining unit members.
The number of projects may be down, but the biggest ever in the tabletop games category just funded: Cephalofair’s Frosthaven, which raised nearly $13 million (see "’Frosthaven’ Kickstarter Raises nearly $13M"). On the comic side of the house, Todd McFarlane’s Original Spawn Action Figure & Comic Remastered Kickstarter has raised nearly $2.5 million with three days to go. So although the number of projects is down, the Kickstarter community appears to be continuing to support projects they like at high levels.
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New Union Negotiates Severance
Posted by Milton Griepp on May 5, 2020 @ 4:56 am CT
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