Product Hunt lays off 60% of staff in recent restructuring attempts

Product Hunt layoffs: Product Hunt, the platform for discovering innovative products from smaller startups, apps, tech tools, and developers' side projects, recently underwent a major restructuring. While the company had previously announced layoffs without specifying their extent, it has now been revealed that approximately 60 per cent of the team was affected, including individuals in design, product, sales, and various other roles. Notably, the engineering, advertising, and community staff remain intact.

The layoff announcement was made public on October 10 by CEO Rajiv Ayyangar, who used X to facilitate connections between departing employees and potential job opportunities. Ayyangar expressed the necessity for these changes, citing the need to streamline the team for increased speed and focus.

Longtime Product Hunt user and tech veteran Chris Messina initially revealed that Product Hunt had cut 70 per cent of its workforce, but Ayyangar clarified that the accurate figure was approximately 60 per cent. This correction was attributed to outdated information on the company's About page.

Rajiv Ayyangar had recently joined the company in September, following roles as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Dropbox and as the CEO and co-founder of the virtual office startup Tandem.

Traffic and financial stability remain robust

In his statement Ayyangar assured that the layoffs were not linked to financial or company performance concerns, underlining that traffic and financial stability were robust. Instead, the decision was driven by strategic considerations. Affected staff members received severance packages.

Product Hunt's transformation comes at a time when businesses are scrutinising their software spending, which may impact the appetite for experimenting with new SaaS products. 

The platform, originally backed by Y Combinator (YC) and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), was acquired by AngelList in 2016, later spun out in 2020, and inspired the creation of the Hyper fund in 2021, designed to support innovative products featured on the site.