Ava Labs Retrenches 12% of Staff, Redirects Resources Toward Expansion
Emin Gün Sirer, Ava Labs’ chief executive officer, emphasized that the company is appropriately positioned with substantial resources and a runway.
Ava Labs, Avalanche blockchain’s primary developer, has disclosed that it dismissed 12% of its staff in the latest round of staff cuts. It cited the need to divert its resources as the reason for the dismissal.
Emin Gün Sirer, the company’s founder and chief executive officer, corroborated the news on November 7. This came after some ex-workers revealed on X (previously Twitter) that they had been dismissed.
Ava Labs Leverage Layoff to Restructure Resource Allocation
Gün Sirer said the implemented reduction impacted 12% of the team and permitted them to redirect resources to strengthen the firm’s and the Avalanche ecosystem’s growth. Further, the CEO admitted it can be challenging to navigate the bear markets. However, he reiterated that Ava Labs is appropriately positioned with significant remarkable resources and runway.
LinkedIn shows that Ava Labs comprises 335 workers, meaning nearly 40 persons were affected. Garrison Yang, the vice president of growth and strategy at Ava Labs, implied that most of the dismissals originated from the company’s marketing team.
An October 6 post on X by Zach Manafort, an ex-game growth marketing team member, indicated he was fired. His dismissal happened despite his active involvement in the Avalanche community since 2020. Further, the sackings shocked Manafort, who believed ‘things were just starting.’
Brandon Suzuki, an ex-employee in Ava Labs’ marketing unit, also verified his laying off on October 6. The latest layoffs come days following a 50% staff reduction by OpenSea, a nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, on November 3.
CryptoRecruit’s founder, Neil Dundon, revealed that in spite of a current increase in crypto market capitalization, job openings remain scarce in the crypto industry. He said that, at present, the crypto market is quite rough, and VC has dried up.
Crypto Companies Recruit in Readiness for Bullish Market
Dundon stressed the need for additional signs indicating a bull market before any significant increase in hiring again. He stated that this is how it has always been and is still the same. Proof of Search’s founder, Kevin Gibson, and Cryptocurrency Jobs’ founder, Daniel Adler, revealed that they have witnessed a trivial increase over the past few weeks.
According to Gibson, the situation was linked to cryptocurrency companies acting under the impression of missing out on the talent pool when market conditions improve next year. He said that since it is still an employer’s market, they motivate firms to leverage such to continue developing. Besides, he claimed that things will be quite different next year.
According to Gibson, some positions were just 2-3 day-per-week rather than full-time jobs. Adler shared the same view by saying that as people approach the end of the year, teams are conducting an ultimate hiring push and implementing their hiring roadmap and plans.
