How 41 Companies Handled Pandemic Layoffs

Airbnb

Company profile: Airbnb

Airbnb's revenue depended almost entirely on travel, and short-term stays, Experiences and cross-border travel collapsed in March 2020. The aid it gave hosts came from its own money and its founders', employees' and investors'.

The first moves were aimed at hosts. On March 26, 2020 Airbnb announced a program to house 100,000 healthcare workers, relief workers and first responders for free or at a subsidy, with Airbnb waiving its fees. On March 30 a letter to hosts apologized for telling guests they could cancel for COVID-19 refunds "without consulting you." It committed $250 million to pay hosts 25% of what they would normally have received under their cancellation policies for affected check-ins between March 14 and May 31 and created a $10 million Superhost Relief Fund. The June 18 update put the fund at $17 million, including $9 million the three founders put in personally, $1 million donated by employees and $7 million from investors, and said it had paid $16.8 million in grants of $1,000 to $5,000 to more than 8,700 hosts, 67% of them outside the United States.

The workforce cut came on May 5, 2020. Chesky's note to employees said revenue for the year was forecast at less than half of 2019's. The company had already raised $2 billion and cut costs across the business. In April, CNBC reported, it had frozen hiring, suspended marketing and cut executive pay. Nearly 1,900 of the 7,500 employees, about 25%, would leave. Airbnb paused its Transportation and Airbnb Studios efforts and scaled back Hotels and Lux. Departing U.S. employees got 14 weeks of base pay plus a week for every year of service, and 12 months of COBRA health coverage. The company also waived the one-year equity cliff for recent hires so that everyone leaving would be a shareholder. The last working day for affected staff in the U.S. and Canada was May 11.

The narrower business went public on December 10, 2020. At the end of 2025 it had about 8,200 employees (Form 10-K for 2025), against roughly 7,500 before the cut.

Sources

• Airbnb, "A Message from Co-Founder and CEO Brian Chesky" (May 5, 2020) — original: https://news.airbnb.com/a-message-from-co-founder-and-ceo-brian-chesky/ A Message from Co-Founder and CEO Brian Chesky (Airbnb) (stored capture)
• CNBC, "Airbnb to lay off nearly 1,900 people, 25% of company" (May 5, 2020) — original: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/05/airbnb-to-lay-off-nearly-1900-people-25percent-of-company.html Airbnb to lay off nearly 1,900 people, 25% of company (stored capture)
• Airbnb, "A Letter to Hosts" (March 30, 2020) — original: https://news.airbnb.com/a-letter-to-hosts/ A Letter to Hosts (Airbnb) (stored capture)
• Airbnb, "Hosts to Help Provide Housing to 100,000 COVID-19 Responders" (March 26, 2020) — original: https://news.airbnb.com/airbnb-to-help-provide-housing-to-100000-covid-19-responders/ Hosts to Help Provide Housing to 100,000 COVID-19 Responders (stored capture)
• Airbnb, "Superhost Relief Fund Provided Grants to 8,700 Homes and Experience Hosts" (June 18, 2020) — original: https://news.airbnb.com/superhost-relief-fund-provided-grants-to-8700-homes-and-experience-hosts/ Superhost Relief Fund Provided Grants to 8,700 Hosts (stored capture)
• Airbnb company profile — founding, founders and IPO date.
• Airbnb, Inc., Form 10-K for 2025 (filed February 12, 2026): employees at December 31, 2025

Back to the table

Blueground

Company profile: Blueground

Blueground leased apartments, furnished them and rented them for stays of a month or more to individuals and corporate clients. Layoffs.fyi reported on April 8, 2020 that it had laid off 130 people, 25% of its staff, the previous week, mostly in business roles, in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, joining many other real estate startups.

About two weeks later, on April 15, SBA approved a $2,216,140 PPP loan to Blueground US, Inc., at 498 Seventh Avenue in New York. The loan record reports 131 jobs, allocates $1,660,140 to payroll and $556,000 to utilities, and names Silicon Valley Bridge Bank as the originating lender and First-Citizens Bank & Trust as the servicer. It was forgiven on July 27, 2021 for $2,244,457.34, principal plus interest.

TechCrunch reported in 2024 that business for short-term furnished rentals was booming "at the height of the pandemic" as people roamed the world while working from home, and that demand for temporary housing cratered once employers called workers back to offices.

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi, "Blueground laid off 130 employees" (Apr. 8, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/04/08/blueground-laid-off-130-employees/
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (loan 1596957209, Blueground US, Inc.) — original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (stored capture)
• TechCrunch, "Furnished rental startup Blueground defies proptech woes with $560M in revenue, a new $45M raise" (Mar. 28, 2024) — original: https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/28/furnished-rental-blueground-raises-45m/

Back to the table

ClassPass

Company profile: ClassPass

ClassPass sold subscribers credits to spend at other people's studios and gyms, so when they shut, its product shut with them. A Change.org petition the company had started by March 25, 2020 said that in the previous two weeks "80-90% of ClassPass' 30,000 partners across 30 countries have temporarily closed for business."

On April 2, 2020 a ClassPass spokesperson told Yahoo Finance that "53% of ClassPass employees were impacted — 22% of our team has been laid off and 31% of our team has been furloughed." The company said cost-saving measures over the previous weeks had not been enough because "our revenue has decreased by more than 95%." One employee told Yahoo Finance that the company Slack had about 480 people left and that laid-off staff had been told their health insurance would run until June 20.

ClassPass's New York WARN notice, dated April 8, 2020, listed 146 workers at its 275 7th Avenue office, a layoff date of April 2, 2020 and the classification "Temporary Plant Layoff." California's list shows 35 more in San Francisco, also temporary, from the same date. A June 2020 amendment in New York made 17 of the 146 layoffs permanent from July 1, 2020, and a separate California notice listed 8 permanent layoffs in San Francisco from that day.

ClassPass is private, and SBA's PPP loan data lists no borrower under its name. Its member billing pauses, studio programs and venture-debt terms during the pandemic are on its profile.

Sources

• Yahoo Finance, "ClassPass lays off or furloughs 53% of employees amid coronavirus" (April 2, 2020) — original: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coroanvirus-class-pass-lays-off-50-of-employees-203636471.html
• New York State Department of Labor, "WARN Details" (ClassPass, Inc., notice of April 8, 2020; copy of June 24, 2020) — original: https://web.archive.org/web/20200624112454/https://labor.ny.gov/app/warn/details.asp?id=7925
• New York State Department of Labor, "WARN Details" (ClassPass, Inc., amendment of June 18, 2020; copy of October 23, 2020) — original: https://web.archive.org/web/20201023010403/https://labor.ny.gov/app/warn/details.asp?id=8830
• California Employment Development Department, "WARN Report: Summary by Received Date 07/01/2019 - 06/30/2020" (fiscal year 2019-20) — original: https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/jobs_and_training/warn/warn-report-for-7-1-2019-to-6-30-2020.pdf
• California Employment Development Department, "WARN Report: Summary by State Fiscal Year, July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2021" (fiscal year 2020-21) — original: https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/jobs_and_training/warn/warn-report-for-7-1-2020-to-06-30-2021.pdf

Back to the table

Convene

Company profile: Convene

Convene ran meeting, event and shared-amenity space in office buildings. In March 2020 it had 28 locations in the U.S. and employed about 832 people, according to a spokesperson. In the week of March 16, 2020, it shut 17 locations after a member at a New York City space contracted the coronavirus, then closed all 28 as restrictions tightened.

By March 20 it had laid off close to a fifth of its staff, nearly 150 people, and was furloughing others, Commercial Observer reported. "After closing all of our locations, we have had to take the additional measure of saying goodbye to nearly 20% of our team across the company and furloughing others," chief executive Ryan Simonetti told Business Insider. Laid-off employees received one month of severance plus a week for each year of service, and a month of healthcare coverage.

On March 24 Simonetti wrote on the company blog that Convene had laid off 17% of its workforce and furloughed hundreds. He said the company was working with "shareholders, landlord partners, lenders and clients to ensure the security of Convene's future." He set up a Convene Relief Fund for employees, funded by voluntary donations from the leadership team and his entire salary. Layoffs.fyi recorded the cut as 150 people, 18% of staff, across all departments, alongside layoffs at the coworking companies WeWork, Knotel, Industrious and The Wing.

Sources

• Commercial Observer, "Convene Lays Off Nearly 150 Employees" (March 20, 2020) — original: https://commercialobserver.com/2020/03/convene-lays-off-nearly-150-employees/
• Layoffs.fyi, "Convene laid off 150 employees" (April 8, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/04/08/convene-laid-off-150-employees/
• Convene, Ryan Simonetti, "The Toughest Week at Convene" (March 24, 2020) — original: https://convene.com/catalyst/company-news/the-toughest-week-at-convene/

Back to the table

Greenhouse

Company profile: Greenhouse

Greenhouse sold hiring software to employers, and its revenue depended on those customers hiring. In spring 2020 they stopped. On April 17, 2020, in a post titled "Weathering the storm," chief executive Daniel Chait announced that Greenhouse would cut its team by 28%. Layoffs.fyi and Business Insider put the number at about 120 employees. "The virus, and resulting economic effects, are what made this necessary. And as CEO, I am ultimately responsible for this decision," he wrote. Business Insider reported that the cuts fell mostly on sales and marketing. Chait wrote that the company had prioritized the cuts "to focus more deeply on Sales & Marketing," preserving customer success, account management, support and R&D. Departing employees received eight weeks of severance and eight months of extended healthcare.

Business Insider cited a Layoffs.fyi estimate that more than 2,000 startup employees in HR and recruiting had lost their jobs because of the pandemic, and its rival Lever had cut about 40% of its staff a week earlier.

On May 28, 2020 Greenhouse's blog carried a post from Drafted, an integration partner for almost three years, which made its Layoff Network free to the whole Greenhouse community, customers or not. Drafted wrote that outplacement agencies usually charged employers more than $1,000 per laid-off person.

Sources

• Business Insider, "Buzzy recruiting-software startup Greenhouse just cut close to 30% of its workforce" (April 17, 2020) — original: https://www.businessinsider.com/hiring-software-startup-greenhouse-lays-off-120-industry-pains-2020-4
• Layoffs.fyi, "Greenhouse lays off 120 employees" (April 20, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/04/20/greenhouse-lays-off-120-employees/
• Greenhouse, Daniel Chait, "Weathering the storm" (April 17, 2020) — original: https://www.greenhouse.com/blog/weathering-the-storm
• Greenhouse, Drafted, "Drafted built the Layoff Network to connect people to jobs faster, and it's free for the Greenhouse community" (May 28, 2020) — original: https://www.greenhouse.com/blog/drafted-built-the-layoff-network-to-connect-people-to-jobs-faster-and-its-free-for-the-greenhouse-community

Back to the table

Groupon

Company profile: Groupon

Groupon sold vouchers for things people could no longer do. In March 2020 its Local units sold fell 49 percent in North America from a year earlier. On April 13 it told the SEC it expected to "terminate or furlough approximately 2,800 employees" out of a staff it later put at nearly 6,300. Layoffs.fyi put the share at 44 percent, across all departments in Chicago, Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The board approved the restructuring on April 6, 2020. The first phase was announced at about 1,400 positions and later restated at about 1,200; the whole plan came to about 1,600 positions, plus the exit of New Zealand and Japan. Furloughs took in "a significant portion of its sales teams." Illinois's WARN list shows 299 permanent layoffs at the Chicago headquarters, cause "Cost Reductions COVID-19," starting June 7, 2020; California's shows 77 in Santa Clara. Groupon had 6,345 employees at the end of 2019, 2,358 of them in North America. It had 4,159 a year later, 3,675 at the end of 2021 and 2,904 at the end of 2022. Its North American sales staff went from 933 to 550 over 2020.

Groupon said it expected layoffs and furloughs to save about $100 million in 2020 and the full plan about $225 million a year; its 2020 results put that year's fixed-cost reduction at about $140 million. The plan's reported total cost changed between annual reports: $106.7 million in the report for 2021, $109.4 million in the report for 2022 and $104.7 million in the report for 2024.

SBA's PPP loan data list no loan to Groupon, Inc. Groupon deferred payroll taxes under the CARES Act; at the end of 2020 it owed $5.8 million of them, and its 2020 tax rate also reflected the act's carryback of federal net operating losses.

The restructuring did not end with the pandemic. On August 5, 2022 its board approved a first phase of about 500 positions globally; TechCrunch put that at nearly 15% of the workforce. On January 25, 2023 its board approved a second phase of about 500 positions globally; TechCrunch put that at almost 20% of a staff reported at about 2,500 the month before. Its 2024 annual report puts the 2022 restructuring plan at about 1,150 positions in all, substantially completed by the end of 2024.

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi 2020 Groupon entry (Apr. 17, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/04/17/groupon-laid-off-or-furloughed-2800-employees/
• Groupon, Inc., Exhibit 99.1, first-quarter 2020 results (June 16, 2020) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1490281/000149028120000098/a2020q18-kxexhibit991.htm
• Groupon, Inc., Exhibit 99.1, second-quarter 2020 results (Aug. 6, 2020) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1490281/000149028120000111/a2020q28-kxexhibit991.htm
• Groupon, Inc., Exhibit 99.1, fourth-quarter and fiscal year 2020 results (February 2021) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1490281/000149028121000022/exhibit991-q42020.htm
• Groupon, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2024 (filed Mar. 11, 2025) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1490281/0001490281-25-000005.txt
• TechCrunch 2023 layoff report (Jan. 30, 2023) — original: https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/30/groupon-cuts-another-500-employees-in-the-second-round-of-layoffs/
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data — original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (stored capture)
• Groupon, Inc., Form 8-K (restructuring and first-quarter update), Apr. 13, 2020 — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1490281/000149028120000048/a8-kxapril132020.htm
• Groupon, Inc., Q1 2020 Letter to Stockholders, June 16, 2020 — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1490281/000149028120000098/q12020shl.htm
• Groupon, Inc., Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2020 — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1490281/000149028120000112/grpn-20200630.htm
• Groupon, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2019 (filed Feb. 18, 2020) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1490281/000149028120000021/a201910-k.htm
• Groupon, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2020 (filed Feb. 25, 2021) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1490281/000149028121000023/grpn-20201231.htm
• Groupon, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2021 (filed Feb. 28, 2022) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1490281/000149028122000027/grpn-20211231.htm
• Groupon, Inc., Form 10-K for fiscal year 2022 (filed Mar. 16, 2023) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1490281/000149028123000022/grpn-20221231.htm
• Groupon, Inc., Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2022 — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1490281/000149028122000113/grpn-20220630.htm
• Illinois Monthly WARN Report, April 2020 — original: https://web.archive.org/web/20240612052252/https://www.illinoisworknet.com/DownloadPrint/April%202020%20Monthly%20WARN%20Report.xlsx
• California EDD WARN Report, July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020 (Groupon row, p. 183) — original: https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/jobs_and_training/warn/warn-report-for-7-1-2019-to-6-30-2020.pdf

Back to the table

Jetty

Company profile: Jetty

Jetty sold renters insurance, security-deposit insurance and lease guarantees, products that left it "on the hook to repay lost rent as unemployment surges," Business Insider wrote. Late in March 2020, Jetty emailed its landlord customers that it and its reinsurer, Munich Re, were pausing sales of all new policies.

Days later Jetty laid off about 35 of its roughly 90 employees, 40% of staff, mostly in business roles in New York. The affected staff were told on a Friday and received severance. A company spokesperson said the cuts had been planned before the pause and were unrelated to it.

Then Jetty borrowed from the Paycheck Protection Program. SBA's loan-level data show two loans to companies named on jetty.com, both at the same New York address:

• Jetty National Inc: $1,318,420 from Emigrant Bank, approved April 14, 2020, 61 jobs reported. Forgiven on March 12, 2021 for $1,330,267.72, principal plus interest.
• Jetty Insurance Agency LLC: $257,150 from U.S. Bank, approved April 16, 2020, 29 jobs reported. Forgiven on April 8, 2021 for $259,635.78.

The two applications reported 90 jobs between them, the headcount Business Insider gave for Jetty before the layoff. Jetty had 100 employees by September 2021.

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi, "Jetty laid off 40% of staff after pausing sales of new insurance policies" (April 17, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/04/17/jetty-laid-off-40-of-staff-after-pausing-sales-of-new-insurance-policies/
• Business Insider, "Peter Thiel-backed insurance startup Jetty lays off 40% of staff days after pausing the sale of all new policies" (April 6, 2020) — original: https://www.businessinsider.com/jetty-lays-off-40-of-workforce-after-new-policy-pause-2020-4
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data — loans 7800607106 (Jetty National Inc) and 2434347205 (Jetty Insurance Agency LLC)

Back to the table

Kickstarter

Company profile: Kickstarter

Kickstarter earns its money from projects that creators launch and backers fund. On April 20, 2020, chief executive Aziz Hasan told staff that the live project count was "about 35% below what it was at this time last year with no clear sign of rebound." He added: "our pledge volume and revenue are tracking sharply down as well." He described the company as "a small business of 140 people with modest operating margins."

The memo said he had cut pay for senior leaders, himself and the board, instituted a hiring cap and stopped automatically refilling open roles. Those measures, he wrote, "aren't enough," and the company opened talks with the union about "potential layoffs across teams and at all levels of staff." About 60% of the 140 employees were in the bargaining unit; staff had voted in February 2020 to form Kickstarter United, represented by the Office and Professional Employees International Union.

The union said its members faced involuntary layoffs with two to three weeks of severance per year of employment. After two weeks of bargaining, its 86-member unit ratified four months of severance pay, four months of health coverage for higher earners and six months for lower earners, a release from their non-compete agreements and a year of recall rights. The union said dozens of its highest-paid members volunteered to go. The health-coverage line sat at $110,001 in salary.

On May 13 a company spokesperson said Kickstarter was "reducing the number of roles at the company by 39%," mostly through voluntary buyouts, with "similar packages" for non-union staff. The notice Kickstarter, PBC filed with New York's labor department, dated May 7, listed 25 affected workers, layoff dates from May 15 to September 30, 2020, and the reason "Unforeseeable business circumstances prompted by COVID-19." Business Insider reported that the count left out an international employee and everyone who took a buyout. Kickstarter reported a team of 90 at the end of 2020, 50 fewer than the 140 in the April memo. Layoffs.fyi's severance tracker, published in June 2020, listed Kickstarter among the startups that gave more than eight weeks of severance pay and more than four months of extended health coverage.

Then the backers outran the creators: 3,465,769 people pledged $777,750,950 in 2020, a record. SBA's PPP loan data list no loan to Kickstarter.

Sources

• Kickstarter PBC, 2020 Benefit Statement (October 2021) — original: https://d3mlfyygrfdi2i.cloudfront.net/PBCReport_2020-10-19-21-af2e81e.pdf
• New York State Department of Labor, WARN notice, Kickstarter, PBC (May 7, 2020) — original: https://labor.ny.gov/app/warn/details.asp?id=8405
• Kickstarter PBC, 2019 Benefit Statement (updated February 9, 2021) — original: https://d3mlfyygrfdi2i.cloudfront.net/2019-PBC_Report_UPDATED-02-09-2021-36bd85e.pdf
• The Verge, "Kickstarter plans layoffs after new projects on the site drop off by 35 percent" (Apr. 20, 2020), with the text of Hasan's memo — original: https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/20/21228412/kickstarter-layoffs-planned-coronavirus-project-declines-crowdfunding-union
• Kickstarter United, "May Day Severance Agreement" (May 2020) — original: https://kickstarterunited.org/may-day-severance-agreement/
• Business Insider, "Kickstarter is reducing its workforce by 39% through layoffs and voluntary buyouts" (May 13, 2020) — original: https://www.businessinsider.com/kickstarter-lays-off-18-of-employees-due-to-covid-19-2020-5
• Layoffs.fyi, "Introducing: the Layoffs.fyi Severance Tracker" (June 16, 2020), in the Layoffs.fyi analysis archive.
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data — original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (stored capture)

Back to the table

Lever

Company profile: Lever

Lever sold applicant-tracking and candidate-relationship software. On March 24, 2020 it made its Remote Interviewing product free to all customers through May 31, 2020. In the week before April 13, 2020 Lever laid off about 40% of its employees across all departments in San Francisco and Toronto. Business Insider first estimated the number at 109. Layoffs.fyi later updated its entry after a Lever employee said 86 people had been laid off. Layoffs.fyi placed the cut among others at recruiting startups, including ZipRecruiter, AngelList and Triplebyte. About a week later Lever's rival Greenhouse cut 28% of its staff.

On April 27, 2020, Live Oak Banking Company approved a $4,043,300 PPP loan to Lever, Inc. of San Francisco, with 167 jobs reported and the whole amount listed for payroll. SBA recorded forgiveness of $4,095,253.64, principal plus interest, on August 12, 2021 (SBA PPP loan-level data, loan 5253667201).

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi, "Lever laid off 86 employees" (April 13, 2020, updated October 27, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/04/13/lever-laid-off-109-employees/
• Business Insider, "Buzzy recruiting-software startup Greenhouse just cut close to 30% of its workforce" (April 17, 2020) — original: https://www.businessinsider.com/hiring-software-startup-greenhouse-lays-off-120-industry-pains-2020-4
• Lever via Business Wire, "Lever Gives Away Remote Interviewing in Response to COVID-19" (March 24, 2020), as republished by HR Tech Feed — original: https://hrtechfeed.com/lever-gives-away-remote-interviewing-in-response-to-covid-19/

Back to the table

Lyft

Company profile: Lyft

Commuting, nightlife, airport and city trips fell under stay-at-home orders, and Lyft withdrew its 2020 guidance. It had no delivery marketplace to fall back on when riders disappeared, and its drivers, as independent contractors, fell outside its payroll cuts.

On April 20, 2020 Lyft committed $6.5 million to COVID-19 relief. Nearly $1.5 million went to cleaning supplies and protective equipment for drivers, including more than 35,000 sanitizing products already given out and hundreds of thousands of cloth face coverings on order. Another $1.5 million went to LyftUp ride credits for low-income seniors, domestic-violence victims and healthcare workers, rides on which drivers were paid as usual. Lyft also paid drivers who were diagnosed with COVID-19 or quarantined, waived fees in its Express Drive rental program and started Essential Deliveries. It said the co-founders had donated their salaries through June.

Nine days later came the staff cuts. On April 29, 2020 Lyft said it would lay off 982 employees, 17% of its workforce, and furlough 288 more. Pay was cut 30% for executive leadership, 20% for vice presidents and 10% for all other employees. Board members gave up 30% of their cash compensation for the second quarter. Lyft put the restructuring charge at $28 million to $36 million, booked in the second quarter. Its shares rose about 5% that day.

Lyft had 3,913 full-time employees at the end of 2025, against 5,683 employees at the end of 2019, before the April 2020 layoff of 982 (Forms 10-K for 2019 and 2025).

Sources

• TechCrunch, "Lyft is laying off 982 employees, furloughing a further 288 due to COVID-19 pandemic" (April 29, 2020) — original: https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/29/lyft-is-laying-off-982-employees-furloughing-a-further-288-due-to-covid-19-pandemic/
• Lyft, "Lyft commits $6.5 million to COVID-19 relief efforts" (April 20, 2020) — original: https://www.lyft.com/blog/posts/lyft-commits-6-5-million-to-covid-19-relief Lyft commits $6.5 million to COVID-19 relief efforts (stored capture)
• Lyft, Inc., Forms 10-K for 2019 (filed February 28, 2020) and 2025 (filed February 11, 2026): employees at year end

Back to the table

Magic Leap

Company profile: Magic Leap

Magic Leap had raised more than $2.6 billion to build augmented-reality headsets, first for consumers. On April 22, 2020, it laid off what it called a "number of employees" and said it was backing away from consumer products. Bloomberg reported that about half the staff, roughly 1,000 people, were cut, and that the company had been exploring a sale that could value it at $10 billion. In a blog post chief executive Rony Abovitz cited COVID-19 and wrote that the company had to "align our efforts to focus on the areas of our business that advance our technology, ensure delivery of Magic Leap 2, and expand product-market fit and revenue generation." A spokesperson referred TechCrunch to the blog post and did not comment on the number of layoffs.

UploadVR reported on July 19, 2024 that Magic Leap was laying off staff again; the company said it had "consolidated our frontline engagement to our developer support and care teams" and did not give a headcount. SBA's PPP loan data list no loan to a borrower named Magic Leap.

Sources

• TechCrunch 2020 layoff / pivot report (Apr. 22, 2020) — original: https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/22/magic-leap-announces-layoffs-amid-covid-19-slowdown/
• UploadVR on 2024 Magic Leap layoffs (July 19, 2024) — original: https://www.uploadvr.com/magic-leap-layoffs-2024/
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data — original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (stored capture)

Back to the table

Mindbody

Company profile: Mindbody

Mindbody ran booking and payments software for the gyms, studios, salons and spas that stay-at-home orders closed first. Layoffs.fyi's roundup of April 6, 2020 recorded that Mindbody had laid off or furloughed 700 employees, 35% of staff, and that "nearly 95% of their customers are closed due to shelter-at-home orders."

Its COVID-19 financial-resources page told customers: "We've partnered with Lendio to provide small businesses a portal to easily apply for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)." SBA's PPP loan data list no loan to a borrower named Mindbody.

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi, "Layoffs Roundup — Mon, 4/6/20" (Apr. 6, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/04/06/layoffs-roundup-mon-4-6-20/
• Mindbody, "Financial Resources for Your Fitness, Salon, Spa, and Wellness Business for COVID-19" (company blog, 2020).
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data — original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (stored capture)

Back to the table

Namely

Company profile: Namely

Namely sold HR and payroll software to mid-sized employers, and part of its fee was charged per employee, so its revenue fell as its customers cut staff. Its own releases show the drop: on April 8, 2020 their boilerplate read "Serving more than 1,400 clients with 280,000 employees globally"; on April 22 it read 230,000 employees. The employee count fell by 50,000, or 17.9 percent, between the two releases.

Chief executive Larry Dunivan told TechCrunch on May 1, 2020 that Namely had cut executive pay five weeks earlier to try to avoid layoffs, but the shutdown made cuts unavoidable. TechCrunch reported that Namely had let go "upwards of 40%" of its roughly 400 employees, including its CFO, its chief security officer and the entire customer-success team. Dunivan later told Layoffs.fyi that 110 employees were laid off, not the 160 that TechCrunch's report had implied. Layoffs.fyi listed the cuts in New York City and Atlanta, across all departments. Measured against TechCrunch's roughly 400 employees, 110 is 27.5 percent. The New York State Department of Labor's list of 2020 WARN notices has no entry for Namely.

Dunivan described the squeeze on customers. One client with several yoga studios had employed 500 people earlier in 2020 and had laid off all but 15. He waived her minimum-employee charge for a period so she could conserve cash, which meant less revenue for Namely. Its payroll software let clients defer tax remittances under the CARES Act, and the SBA's public PPP loan data (release of September 30, 2024) list no borrower with "Namely" in its name.

Sources

• TechCrunch, "Namely, a former high flier, slashes staff as demand for its HR software dries up in the pandemic" (May 1, 2020) — original: https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/01/namely-a-former-high-flier-slashes-staff-as-demand-for-its-hr-software-dries-up-in-the-pandemic/
• Layoffs.fyi, "Namely laid off 110 employees, citing challenges faced by its SMB customers" (May 11, 2020, updated October 27, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/05/11/namely-laid-off-160-employees-citing-challenges-faced-by-its-smb-customers/
• Namely, "Namely Enhances Product Functionality to Support HR Professionals During COVID-19 Pandemic" (April 8, 2020) — original: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/namely-enhances-product-functionality-to-support-hr-professionals-during-covid-19-pandemic-301037046.html
• Namely, "Namely Launches New Managed Benefits Pro Service Offering to Help Mid-Sized Companies Manage Complexities, Reduce Billing Errors and Save Time" (April 22, 2020) — original: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/namely-launches-new-managed-benefits-pro-service-offering-to-help-mid-sized-companies-manage-complexities-reduce-billing-errors-and-save-time-301043800.html
• New York State Department of Labor, "Warn Notices" (2020) — original: https://dol.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2021/04/2020-nys-warn-notices.pdf
• SBA, Paycheck Protection Program loan-level data (FOIA release of September 30, 2024)

Back to the table

Ola

Company profile: Ola

Ola, the Indian ride-hailing app, set up relief for its drivers first. On March 21, 2020, it said it would pay driver-partners and their spouses who tested positive for COVID-19 Rs 1,000 a day for up to 21 days, within a floater of Rs 30,000. Two days later, in Sydney, it set up a fund paying Australian drivers who were infected or told to self-isolate up to 14 days of their average daily earnings. By April 9 the Ola Group and its employees had put INR 20 crore (200 million rupees) into the Ola Foundation's Drive the Driver Fund, and chief executive Bhavish Aggarwal had given the fund a year's salary.

Then came the company's own cuts. Layoffs.fyi's June 8, 2020 analysis listed Ola among the ten largest tech layoffs since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic: 1,400 employees, 35% of staff, on May 20. SBA's PPP loan data list no borrower named ANI Technologies, Ola Cabs or Ola Fleet.

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi, "Startup layoffs decline to lowest level since mid-March" (June 8, 2020), in the Layoffs.fyi analysis archive.
• Ola press releases: driver-partner COVID-19 cover and Mfine consultations (Mar. 21, 2020); "Ola sets up COVID-19 Fund for Drivers," Sydney (Mar. 23, 2020); PM CARES and chief ministers' relief-fund pledges, with the Drive the Driver Fund (Apr. 9, 2020); Ola CONNECTS (Apr. 16, 2020).
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data — original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (stored capture)

Back to the table

Opendoor

Company profile: Opendoor

Opendoor made its money buying houses and reselling them. It laid off 600 people, 35 percent of its staff, on April 15, 2020, while stay-at-home orders shut most of the country. Chief executive Eric Wu's statement said the pandemic had "had an unforeseen impact on public health, the U.S. economy, and housing," and that Opendoor had "seen declines in the number of people buying, selling, and moving during this time of uncertainty." TechCrunch cited Realtor.com figures: U.S. homes for sale fell 15.7 percent year over year in March 2020, and new listings fell 34.0 percent in the week ending March 28.

Laid-off employees received eight weeks of full pay and 16 weeks of reimbursement for health insurance. Wu said he would donate his 2020 salary to a relief fund for Opendoor employees, and other executives also contributed.

The cuts continued after the company went public in December 2020. On November 2, 2022 Wu announced a second cut, about 550 people or 18 percent, in what he called "one of the most challenging real estate markets in 40 years." He wrote that Opendoor had already scaled back "by over 830 positions — primarily by reducing third party resourcing." Five months later, on April 18, 2023, the company confirmed a third cut of 22 percent, about 560 people, mostly in operations.

Sources

• TechCrunch, "SoftBank-backed Opendoor has announced a massive layoff, cutting 35% of its employees" (April 15, 2020) — original: https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/15/softbank-backed-opendoor-has-announced-a-massive-layoff-cutting-35-of-its-employees/
• TechCrunch, "Opendoor lays off about 550 employees, or 18% of its workforce" (November 2, 2022) — original: https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/02/opendoor-lays-off-about-550-employees-or-18-of-its-workforce/
• Real Estate News, "Opendoor cuts 22% of its employees" (April 18, 2023) — original: https://www.realestatenews.com/2023/04/18/opendoor-cuts-22-of-its-employees

Back to the table

Pared

Company profile: Pared

Pared ran a shift-staffing app for restaurants, the businesses lockdown orders hit first. Its first pandemic blog post, on March 15, 2020, passed on an accountant's advice to restaurant owners. Its section on hourly labor began: "Cut hourly labor immediately and deeply." Shifts were what Pared sold.

On July 23, 2020, chief executive Will Pacio announced that the company would suspend the product it had been founded on: "So as of July 31st, we will be suspending our gig platform." That week, according to a Layoffs.fyi post of July 31, Pared released a layoff spreadsheet listing 16 former employees in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City, among them several software engineers. Pacio's letter does not mention layoffs; it offered employers free job posting to "our network of over 100,000 jobseekers in the hospitality industry," a figure that is Pared's own.

Layoffs.fyi called the cut "a significant layoff" and printed no share of the workforce. Its count of at least 16 is the number of names on the list. Pared does not appear in California's WARN reports for July 2019 through June 2021 or in New York's 2020 WARN list. SBA's PPP loan data list no loan to a borrower named Pared.

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi Pared entry (July 31, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/07/31/pared-layoff-list-surfaces/
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data — original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia- Will Pacio, "Adapting to a New World," Pared blog (July 23, 2020) — original: https://web.archive.org/web/20200729163531/http://blog.pared.com:80/adapting-to-a-new-world/
• Dave Lu, "Expert Survival Tips for Restaurants during Coronavirus Crisis," Pared blog (March 15, 2020) — original: https://web.archive.org/web/20200929080413/https://blog.pared.com/expert-survival-tips-for-restaurants-during-coronavirus-crisis/
• Pared job-posting form, "Need to hire fast? Post your jobs to Pared for free." (copy of August 3, 2020) — original: https://web.archive.org/web/20200803124742/https://www.pared.com/submit-a-job-posting/?utm_campaign=Unmanaged%20Job%20Posts&utm_source=blog&utm_medium=pared_site
• California Employment Development Department, "WARN Report: Summary by Received Date 07/01/2019 - 06/30/2020" (fiscal year 2019-20) — original: https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/jobs_and_training/warn/warn-report-for-7-1-2019-to-6-30-2020.pdf
• California Employment Development Department, "WARN Report: Summary by State Fiscal Year, July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2021" (fiscal year 2020-21) — original: https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/jobs_and_training/warn/warn-report-for-7-1-2020-to-06-30-2021.pdf
• New York State Department of Labor, "2020 WARN Notices" — original: https://dol.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2021/04/2020-nys-warn-notices.pdf

Back to the table

Peek

Company profile: Peek

Peek sold booking software to tour and activity operators and ran a consumer marketplace for booking them, a category that stopped when travel did. Layoffs.fyi reported on April 6, 2020 that Peek "conducted a mass layoff in March, according to multiple LinkedIn posts by employees." It put the count at 45 employees, mostly business roles, and said its list of 25 former employees skewed toward business roles in the Salt Lake City office. California's WARN reports for July 2019 through June 2023 carry no Peek entry, and neither do Utah's WARN lists as posted in November 2020 and August 2022.

Within weeks Peek was a PPP referral channel. On April 9, 2020 it announced a partnership with Womply, which it described as "a registered loan agent," to help operators prepare applications, and its capital guide told customers: "If you haven't yet applied for a PPP loan, we recommend that you do so immediately through our partner Womply." The same guide, like its loan page, told operators who had "already reduced staff or wages" that they had "until June 30 to reverse those changes to be eligible for loan forgiveness."

Peek also borrowed. SBA's PPP loan data record a first-draw loan of $3,370,340 to Peek Travel, Inc. of San Francisco, approved April 15, 2020 through Harvest Small Business Finance, with 115 jobs reported and the full amount assigned to payroll. SBA recorded forgiveness of $3,258,949.12 on March 22, 2022, $111,390.88 less than the principal; the data do not give a reason. A second-draw loan of $1,999,950, approved January 23, 2021 through the same lender with 88 jobs reported, was forgiven in the amount of $2,015,292.08 on November 17, 2021.

Sources

• Peek conducted a mass layoff (Layoffs.fyi, Apr. 6, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/04/06/peek-conducted-a-mass-layoff/
• Peek + Womply Partnership Announcement (Peek Pro blog, Apr. 9, 2020) — original: https://www.peekpro.com/blog/peek-womply-partnership
• Peek + Womply: Apply for a PPP Loan (Peek Pro, Apr. 8, 2020) — original: https://www.peek.com/pro/covid-19/peek-womply-ppp-loan
• COVID-19: A Guide to Accessing and Protecting Capital (Peek Pro blog, April 2020) — original: https://www.peekpro.com/blog/covid-19-a-guide-to-accessing-and-protecting-capital
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data — original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (stored capture)

Back to the table

Redfin

Company profile: Redfin

Redfin runs a real estate brokerage whose lead agents are its own employees. GeekWire reported that it had 3,377 employees at the end of 2019, including more than 1,500 lead agents. Chief executive Glenn Kelman wrote that Redfin had hired about 25 percent fewer agents each year than its website demand could support, so that a 25 percent fall in demand would still leave the workforce fully productive.

"Now housing demand is down much more than that," Kelman wrote in his April 7, 2020 post. Redfin sent 41 percent of its agents home that Friday, most on furlough until September 1, along with coordinators, recruiters and renovators who supported them, and laid off 7 percent of its staff. Most went on furlough with a transition bonus and health-care benefits through the summer; some, including new hires who had not yet met a customer, were let go for good. Headquarters staff took temporary salary cuts of 10 to 15 percent and lost their bonuses for the year.

Kelman wrote that one reason for choosing furloughs was the federal government's $600 weekly addition to unemployment insurance. The estimate was Redfin's own: three in four of the departing field staff lived in states where they could collect more than their Redfin pay. Kelman noted that the estimate assumed every state opted in and did not account for workers whose history disqualified them or who would not get the maximum. "No matter how much unemployment insurance the government pays, letting people go, even temporarily, is an unnatural act that we hate having to do," Kelman wrote. He ended: "We'll fight like wild animals to bring everyone on furlough back."

Sources

• Redfin, Glenn Kelman, "A Big Redfin Furlough, With Some Permanent Departures" (April 7, 2020) — original: https://www.redfin.com/news/redfin-furlough/
• GeekWire, "Redfin lays off 7% of staff, furloughs hundreds of agents due to COVID-19 impact on housing demand" (April 7, 2020) — original: https://www.geekwire.com/2020/redfin-lays-off-7-staff-furloughs-hundreds-agents-due-covid-19-impact-housing-demand/

Back to the table

Remote Year

Company profile: Remote Year

Remote Year sold year-long work-and-travel programs, at $2,000 to $3,000 a person per month in 2020, and lost half its revenue in days when borders closed. Founder Greg Caplan told TechCrunch on March 19, 2020 that Remote Year had laid off half its staff, about 50 roles in sales, marketing and product. "The borders sort of froze up with the virus and a lot of our folks decided not to travel and go home," he said. "Half of our revenue dried off in a couple of days, and there's no end in sight when this situation may change." The company said it still had runway from its last round, and its three-person team that placed people in remote jobs was coaching the laid-off staff.

Layoffs.fyi noted in May 2020 that small travel startups such as Lola, Remote Year and WanderJaunt had cut dozens of jobs each before Airbnb and TripAdvisor made any cuts. SBA's PPP loan data list no borrower named Remote Year.

Sources

• TechCrunch, "Remote Year, which helps you work while traveling the world, lays off 50% of staff" (Mar. 19, 2020) — original: https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/19/remote-year-which-helps-you-work-while-traveling-the-world-lays-off-50-of-staff/
• Layoffs.fyi, "Startup layoffs slowing down, but more employees laid off on average" (May 18, 2020), in the Layoffs.fyi analysis archive.
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data — original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (stored capture)

Back to the table

RigUp / Workrise

Company profile: RigUp / Workrise

RigUp, an Austin marketplace for oilfield contract labor valued at $1.9 billion, went from "hiring at a rapid pace across all functions" in January 2020 to layoffs two months later. Employees told Business Insider that three blows landed at once: Saudi Arabia's price cut sent oil to a three-decade low, the coronavirus hit the gas market as home-bound Americans stopped driving, and the federal stimulus plan left out the support the oil industry had hoped for.

RigUp filed SEC paperwork for a $29 million round on March 20, 2020, then days later laid off about 120 people on a conference call. "Last month, we made the very difficult decision to let go of approximately 25% of our team," the company told Business Insider in April, calling the decision "a direct result of the economic hit in oil and gas coupled with the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak." It gave severance pay, extended health coverage and help with resumes.

In March 2020 its blog walked contract workers through PPP, EIDL and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. SBA's PPP loan data list no borrower named RigUp or Workrise.

Sources

• Business Insider, "Austin unicorn startup RigUp went from hiring 'at a rapid pace' to cutting 25% of staff in a matter of weeks" (Apr. 8, 2020) — original: https://www.businessinsider.com/rigup-oil-andreessen-horowitz-data-breach-layoffs-2020-4
• RigUp blog, "Resources for Those Affected by Recent Market Conditions" (Mar. 30, 2020).
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data — original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (stored capture)

Back to the table

Ritual

Company profile: Ritual

Ritual, a Toronto-based app for ordering lunch and coffee ahead from restaurants near offices, depended on office workers and the restaurants around them. The Globe and Mail reported that Ritual's traffic fell by 70 percent or more in March 2020.

It laid off 196 people, 54 percent of its staff, on April 2, 2020. Layoffs.fyi reported that the cut reached all departments, mostly at the Toronto headquarters but also at U.S. locations, including Chicago and New York. Business, it said, "was severely impacted by restaurants closing down and people working from home." The Globe put the layoffs at 181 people, more than half the staff, and said Ritual pulled out of Europe within weeks. That spring Ritual raised another US$22 million, led by Georgian at a lower valuation.

For restaurants, it offered a new commission-free ordering product, Ritual ONE, "free for life" to restaurants that signed up by June 1, 2020; "Standard credit card processing fees apply." The business kept shrinking. The Globe reported that Ritual cut its staff to fewer than 50 people and that revenue fell to US$11 million in 2021, US$8.4 million in 2023 and US$3.9 million in the first half of 2024, from more than US$50 million in late 2019.

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi, "Ritual lays off 196 employees due to COVID-19 impact on restaurants" (April 2, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/04/02/ritual-lays-off-196-employees-due-to-covid-19-impact-on-restaurants/
• The Globe and Mail, Sean Silcoff, "Ritual co-founders leave once-high-flying food takeout app provider for Shopify" (January 13, 2025) — original: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-ritual-cofounders-join-shopify/
• Ritual, "Commission-free online ordering with Ritual ONE," Ritual ONE partner page (archived May 23, 2020) — original: https://web.archive.org/web/20200523165312/https://ritual.co/partners/ritualone

Back to the table

Rover

Company profile: Rover

Rover, the Seattle pet-sitting and dog-walking marketplace, depended on owners who travel and go to work. Its September 2021 prospectus says that in March 2020 it turned off substantially all paid acquisition marketing, cut about 40 percent of its employees and moved about 10 percent more to standby or furlough. The same filing describes an April 2020 restructuring plan under which about 50 percent of employees were terminated or put on standby, with severance costs and changed terms for the stock options of those affected. It says Rover's workforce shrank by more than 40 percent over the second quarter of 2020, to under 250 employees.

On April 15, 2020 Rover was approved for a Paycheck Protection Program loan of $8,123,540, reporting 220 jobs. The record names the borrower "A Place for Rover/Rover," at a Seattle office address, and reports the whole amount as payroll, about $36,900 for each job; Silicon Valley Bridge Bank is listed as the originating lender. The SBA lists the loan as paid in full on August 21, 2021 and records no forgiveness.

In the first quarter of 2021, against the first quarter of 2020, Rover's revenue was $12.2 million against $17.0 million, bookings about 643,000 against about 925,000, and gross bookings value $64.7 million against $86.8 million.

Sources

• SBA, PPP FOIA loan-level data, public_150k_plus_240930.csv (loan 9394337100) — original: https://data.sba.gov/en/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data, public_150k_plus_240930.csv (stored capture)
• Rover, "Rover Reports First Quarter 2021 Financial Results" (May 17, 2021) — original: https://www.rover.com/blog/press-release/rover-reports-first-quarter-2021-financial-results/
• Rover Group, Inc., prospectus (Form 424(b)(3), filed September 23, 2021)

Back to the table

Samsara

Company profile: Samsara

Samsara, a San Francisco Bay Area maker of internet-connected sensors and cameras for fleets, factories and building sites, laid off 300 employees, about 18 percent of its staff, in May 2020. In the same month it raised $400 million at a $5.4 billion valuation, down from $6.3 billion eight months earlier. Customers in public transportation and travel cut back. "In this environment, a lot of projects are put on pause," said Aidan Madigan-Curtis, who ran its Connected Worker unit.

Layoffs.fyi reported that Samsara blamed the economic downturn without giving details, and that the cuts came with a 30 percent cut in executive salaries for the rest of the year, a six-month hiring freeze and cuts to non-essential spending. The company published an official directory of laid-off staff; Layoffs.fyi counted 100 names on it, mostly in the Bay Area.

Communications director Lindsay McKinley called the layoff "a hard decision, but definitely the right one for the business." She said the cuts were deep so that there would be only one round, and that many of the people let go worked in "frontier markets" such as Europe, where the path to profitability was longer, or in recruiting, events and field marketing. From January to May 2020, Business Insider reported, Samsara's customer count grew 50 percent to more than 15,000.

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi, "Samsara lays off 300 employees, launches public alumni directory" (May 21, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/05/21/samsara-lays-off-300-employees-launches-public-alumni-directory/
• Business Insider, Rosalie Chan, "Samsara, a $5.4 billion IoT startup that laid off 300 employees and raised a down round in May, is betting its business on customers in 'industries that are ramping up to support the economy'" (August 11, 2020) — original: https://www.businessinsider.com/samsara-layoffs-iot-startup-coronavirus-crisis-2020-8

Back to the table

Sandbox VR

Company profile: Sandbox VR

Sandbox VR ran rooms where groups played full-body virtual-reality games, and its venues closed in 2020. In the week before May 8, 2020, it laid off its entire engineering team, and its CEO said he was laying himself off as well, according to Layoffs.fyi. Protocol then reported that 80% of the staff had been cut, leaving a crew of about 20. Chief executive Steve Zhao told Protocol in early June that the company had effectively lost all of its revenue.

Sandbox VR, Inc. of Pleasanton, California, had already received a $754,363.32 PPP loan, approved April 30, 2020, with 11 jobs reported and the proceeds marked for payroll ($703,631) and mortgage interest ($50,732). In August 2020 Glostation USA Inc., the name under which Sandbox operates in the United States, filed for Chapter 11, along with a number of associated companies, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Woodland Hills, California. It emerged in late November 2020 under a court-approved reorganization plan.

On March 12, 2021 two more PPP loans were approved at the same Pleasanton address: $183,166.40 to Sandbox VR Pop-Up LLC, with 44 jobs reported, and $58,085.12 to Sandbox VR San Mateo LLC, with 11. All three loans were forgiven with interest: the first in October 2021 for $765,259.35, the two 2021 loans in August 2022 for $185,766.35 and $58,901.54.

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi, "Sandbox VR laid off its engineering team" (May 8, 2020; updated June 8, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/05/08/sandbox-vr-laid-off-its-engineering-team/
• Road to VR, "VR Destination 'Sandbox VR' Emerges from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy After Reorganization" (Aug. 14, 2020; updated Dec. 10, 2020) — original: https://roadtovr.com/celebrity-backed-vr-destination-sandbox-vr-falters-us-subsidiary-files-bankruptcy/
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (loans 7630367309, 9061498503, 9062868509) — original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (stored capture)

Back to the table

Sojern

Company profile: Sojern

Sojern sells advertising aimed at people planning trips. In March 2020, according to a report Adweek cited, travel advertising "fell by as much as 90%." On April 3, 2020, Adweek reported, citing multiple sources, that Sojern "has laid off about half its staff of about 600 employees due to financial instability caused by the coronavirus pandemic." The company confirmed the layoffs but "did not provide further comment as to the exact extent of the cuts." A spokesperson said Sojern "has been hit hard" and had made "the unfortunate decision to lay off several wonderful employees." Layoffs.fyi, citing the Adweek article, listed the cut as "300 employees (50%)."

On April 10, 2020, Omaha-based Core Bank approved a Paycheck Protection Program loan of $6,718,790 to Sojern, Inc., according to SBA's loan-level data. SBA's data list the current approved amount as $6,215,262, all of it for payroll, and record 337 jobs reported on the loan. They record $6,287,082.81 forgiven on June 11, 2021.

Sojern also borrowed through the Federal Reserve's Main Street Lending Program. On July 20, 2020, Union Bank and Trust Company of Lincoln, Nebraska, made Sojern Inc. of San Francisco a $25,000,000 loan under the Main Street New Loan Facility, at 3.19 percent and due July 20, 2025 (Federal Reserve, Main Street Lending Program transaction-specific disclosures). Sojern's September 2022 release for its 15th year said it had "weathered many storms," among them "the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic"; it does not mention the 2020 layoffs or the PPP loan.

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi, "Layoffs Roundup: Mon 4/6/20" (April 6, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/04/06/layoffs-roundup-mon-4-6-20/
• Adweek, "Sojern Lays Off 50% of Staff as Coronavirus Cuts Through the Travel Industry" (April 3, 2020) — original: https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/sojern-lays-off-50-of-staff-as-coronavirus-cuts-through-the-travel-industry/
• U.S. Small Business Administration, Paycheck Protection Program loan-level data, file public_150k_plus_240930.csv (data as of September 30, 2024), loan 2323497103 to SOJERN, INC.

Back to the table

Sonder

Company profile: Sonder

Sonder leased apartments and small hotels and rented them out by the night, through its own app and through Airbnb, Expedia and Booking.com. In March 2020 it had about 5,000 apartments. By March 27, 2020 bookings at those apartments were down 20 percent, and Sonder had laid off or furloughed 400 employees, a third of its staff, Layoffs.fyi reported.

Besides the layoffs, its annual report for 2021 says, other staff were furloughed, had their pay cut or moved to shorter weeks. Sonder renegotiated "a significant portion" of its leases, which commonly included "partial rent relief in the event of a recession," cut overhead and looked for other guests. It lost $250.3 million in 2020 and $294.4 million in 2021, and had about 1,600 employees at the end of 2021. It stopped operating in November 2025, the day after Marriott ended a 20-year licensing deal "due to Sonder's default."

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi, "Sonder lays off 400 employees, bookings down 20%" (March 27, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/03/27/sonder-lays-off-400-employees-bookings-down-20/
• Sonder Holdings Inc., Form 10-K for 2021 — original: https://investors.sonder.com/static-files/46b2b0f8-7442-4715-9236-89f240ddfc38

Back to the table

Stockwell AI

Company profile: Stockwell AI

Stockwell AI, the Bay Area vending-cabinet startup first known as Bodega, placed locked, app-unlocked cabinets of snacks and basics in apartment and office buildings. The pandemic kept people home and made shoppers and restocking staff wary of touching unattended machines.

Stockwell had borrowed from the Paycheck Protection Program two months before it announced the wind-down. SBA's data show a $1,600,000 PPP loan to Stockwell AI, Inc. of Oakland, approved April 13, 2020, with Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, N.A. listed as the originating lender and 113 jobs reported. SBA recorded forgiveness of $1,205,117.86 on November 30, 2020; the file's status for the loan is "Charged Off" (SBA PPP loan-level data, loan 5397917105).

"Regretfully, the current landscape has created a situation in which we can no longer continue our operations and will be winding down the company on July 1st," chief executive Paul McDonald wrote to TechCrunch on June 15, 2020. Layoffs.fyi recorded the closure as a 100 percent cut. On August 13, 2020, 365 Retail Markets announced that it had acquired Stockwell and would hire select members of its team.

Sources

• TechCrunch, "Stockwell, the AI vending machine startup formerly known as Bodega, is shutting down July 1" (June 15, 2020) — original: https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/15/stockwell-the-ai-vending-machine-startup-formerly-known-as-bodega-is-shutting-down-july-1/
• Layoffs.fyi, "Stockwell AI is shutting down on July 1" (June 18, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/06/18/stockwell-ai-is-shutting-down-on-july-1/
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data — original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (stored capture)
• 365 Retail Markets Acquires Stockwell (PR Newswire, August 13, 2020) — original: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/365-retail-markets-acquires-stockwell-301112121.html

Back to the table

StoneCo

Company profile: StoneCo

StoneCo, the Brazilian card-payments company listed on Nasdaq as STNE, sold payment services to small and medium businesses. Its May 12, 2020 filing attached a letter from chief executive Thiago dos Santos Piau to Stone's staff, which announced that 1,300 people, 20 percent of the staff, were leaving the company that day. By the end of March, Stone's May 26 release said, it had increased its headcount by "over 530 people." Piau wrote that the company had to resize a high-growth model in which "we have always hired more people than needed for the Company to operate in the immediate present." The letter said those leaving would keep their health plans for four more months, and severance cost R$15.2 million.

Stone began hiring again in July. Its annual report counted 7,239 full-time employees at the end of 2020, against 5,938 a year earlier. That May it said it had given its merchant clients R$30 million in relief, "including subscription exemptions and lower prepayment rates for the hardest-hit retailers," and R$100 million in microloans. The lending did not last: its 2024 annual report says the credit product it began testing in 2020 "did not perform well" in the pandemic and was shut down, and that Stone "recovered almost 100% of the amount disbursed."

Sources

• StoneCo Ltd., Form 6-K, "StoneCo Ltd. Announces Actions to Address Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic" (May 12, 2020) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1745431/000095010320009413/dp127973_6k.htm
• StoneCo Ltd., Form 20-F for 2024 (filed April 24, 2025) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1745431/0001628280-25-019653.txt
• StoneCo Ltd., Form 6-K Exhibit 99.1, letter from CEO Thiago dos Santos Piau to the Stone team (May 12, 2020) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1745431/000095010320009413/dp127973_ex9901.htm
• StoneCo Ltd., Form 6-K Exhibit 99.1, "StoneCo Reports First Quarter 2020 Financial Results" (May 26, 2020) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1745431/000095010320010122/dp128729_ex9901.htm
• StoneCo Ltd., Form 20-F for 2020 (filed April 7, 2021) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1745431/000162828021006647/stne-20201231.htm

Back to the table

StubHub

Company profile: StubHub

Viagogo closed its purchase of StubHub from eBay on February 13, 2020, weeks before live events stopped. In March StubHub furloughed 450 employees, two-thirds of its North American staff. On June 22, 2020 Layoffs.fyi reported that 200 of the 450 furloughed employees would be laid off permanently "as live events continue to be shut down."

For customers, StubHub replaced its cash-refund guarantee for canceled events with credits worth 120 percent of the order. The District of Columbia and ten states later investigated; the District said 7,867 of its residents got more than $3.6 million back after StubHub reversed course in May 2021.

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi, "StubHub shifts 200 of its furloughed employees into permanent layoffs" (June 22, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/06/22/stubhub-shifts-200-of-its-furloughed-employees-into-permanent-layoffs-2/
• StubHub, event cancellation and refund policy page, Internet Archive snapshot (October 26, 2020) — original: https://www.stubhub.com/live/stubhub-event-cancellation-and-refund-policy-light-coronavirus-covid-19
• Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, "AG Racine Announces Settlement With StubHub Over Cancelled Tickets During COVID-19 Pandemic" (September 14, 2021) — original: https://oag.dc.gov/release/ag-racine-announces-settlement-stubhub-over

Back to the table

Swiggy

Company profile: Swiggy

Swiggy, the Bengaluru food-delivery company, lost demand after India's 21-day national lockdown began on March 24, 2020. On March 31 it set up the Swiggy Hunger Savior Covid Relief Fund for delivery partners, with "primary contributions being made by Swiggy's founders, senior leaders, employees and investors." The announcement said chief executive Sriharsha Majety had committed half his annual salary.

On May 18, 2020, Majety emailed Swiggy's staff that the company would "part ways with 1100 of our employees spanning across grades and functions." He wrote that work on an "accelerated path to profitability for the food delivery business" had begun "last December," and that Swiggy was "very fortunate to have raised capital just before Covid hit and have sufficient runway today." Of the side businesses being scaled down or shut, the email said the biggest impact was on cloud kitchens, whose facilities were being scaled down "temporarily or permanently." The email did not give a total headcount. It promised departing staff at least three months' salary and up to eight depending on tenure. It waived the one-year stock-option cliff for those who had not reached it and provided medical insurance for them and their families until December 31, 2020.

Its audited accounts for the year to March 2021 show salaries, wages and bonus falling from ₹9,620 million to ₹8,304 million, and a ₹1,481 million impairment on equipment and fittings at kitchens that were no longer operating, after management "decided to dis-continue certain kitchens."

Sources

• Swiggy (Bundl Technologies Private Limited), Annual Report 2020-2021 — original: https://www.swiggy.com/corporate/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Annual-report-2020-2021.pdf
• Swiggy, "Launching the Swiggy Hunger Savior Covid Relief Fund" (March 31, 2020) — original: https://blog.swiggy.com/news/launching-the-swiggy-hunger-savior-covid-relief-fund/
• Swiggy, "Changes We’re Making to Adapt to the Times" (May 18, 2020) — original: https://blog.swiggy.com/press-release/changes-were-making-to-adapt-to-the-times/

Back to the table

Thumbtack

Company profile: Thumbtack

Thumbtack matches customers with local service professionals, and shelter-in-place orders stopped much of their work. On March 30, 2020, chief executive Marco Zappacosta wrote on the company blog that the local services on Thumbtack were seeing anything from a "dramatic decline" to an "outright collapse." Across all Thumbtack services, San Francisco was down 61 percent, Detroit 55 percent and New York City 50 percent. "No business operates with enough of a buffer to sustain prolonged revenue declines of 40%+ without making radical changes," he wrote.

The layoffs were the third round of cuts. About two weeks earlier Thumbtack had reduced marketing spend, frozen hiring and cut internal programs for employees. On March 30 Zappacosta took no salary, his executive team cut their salaries by 25 percent, and staff at mid-senior level and above were asked to reduce their pay. The same day 250 employees were laid off, with severance packages "that include both cash and equity components." Neither the post nor TechCrunch's report said what share of the workforce the 250 were. California's WARN report lists a permanent layoff of 129 employees at Thumbtack, Inc. in San Francisco, with notice dated March 30, effective April 1 and received by the state on May 20.

On May 6, 2020, Thumbtack joined Etsy, Airbnb, Eventbrite and Upwork in a letter asking Congress to fix the way the Paycheck Protection Program treated the self-employed. SBA's PPP loan data list no loan to a borrower named Thumbtack. It did borrow from Hercules Capital, a business development company: Hercules's schedules place a $25.04 million senior secured loan to Thumbtack between April 1 and June 30, 2020, the quarter after the layoffs. In November 2021 Thumbtack cited "900+ employees."

Sources

• TechCrunch, Anthony Ha, "Local services marketplace Thumbtack lays off 250 employees" (March 30, 2020) — original: https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/30/thumbtack-layoffs/
• Thumbtack, Marco Zappacosta, "COVID-19, Small Businesses, and Us" (March 30, 2020) — original: https://blog.thumbtack.com/covid-19-small-businesses-and-us-e30c5c36ef3e
• Etsy, Airbnb, Eventbrite, Thumbtack and Upwork, "Etsy, Airbnb, Eventbrite, Thumbtack and Upwork join together to call for COVID relief for the self-employed" (May 6, 2020) — original: https://advocacy.etsy.com/etsy-airbnb-eventbrite-thumbtack-and-upwork-join-together-to-call-for-covid-relief-for-the-self-employed-2/
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data — original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (stored capture)
• Airbnb, Etsy, Eventbrite, Thumbtack and Upwork, joint letter to congressional leaders (Joint CARES 2.0 Letter, May 6, 2020) — original: https://blog.thumbtack.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Joint-CARES-2.0-Letter-1.pdf
• California EDD WARN Report, July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020 — original: https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/jobs_and_training/warn/warn-report-for-7-1-2019-to-6-30-2020.pdf
• Hercules Capital, Inc., Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1280784/000156459020020850/htgc-10q_20200331.htm
• Hercules Capital, Inc., Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2020 — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1280784/000156459020034780/htgc-10q_20200630.htm

Back to the table

Toast

Company profile: Toast

Toast sells restaurants point-of-sale hardware and software tied to payment processing, and most of its 2020 revenue came from a fee on each transaction. On March 18, 2020 Toast's Rally for Restaurants site reported, from Toast platform data, that "restaurant sales have now declined by 68% nationwide."

Massachusetts's 2020 WARN report lists a notice from Toast, received April 9, 2020, of a layoff dated April 8 affecting 736 people in Boston. Toast's IPO registration statement, filed 16 months later, gave the company-wide figure: in April 2020 Toast furloughed about 12 percent of its employees and "terminated approximately 48% of our employees in connection with a reduction in force." It also re-prioritized capital projects, froze hiring company-wide for a time and cut management salaries. Toast booked $10.1 million of 2020 costs, including severance, to the workforce reduction and $2.8 million to ending leases early, and added both back when it calculated adjusted EBITDA.

Chief executive Chris Comparato wrote in a blog post, reported by TechCrunch on April 7, 2020, that the company was "in the unenviable position of reducing our headcount." Laid-off staff were offered severance, benefits coverage, mental health support and a longer window to buy vested stock options, and TechCrunch reported that Toast also pulled back job offers. Comparato's annual on-target cash pay was cut 50 percent: his bonus opportunity was eliminated and his annual base salary was reduced by $32,500. Bonus opportunities were restored on July 1, 2020 and base salaries on August 3.

SBA's public PPP loan data list no loan to a Toast-named borrower in Massachusetts. Toast then lobbied for restaurant relief, and its registration statement says its "sustained actions throughout 2020 played a role" in creating the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. At the end of 2021 Toast had 3,172 employees. In February 2024 it laid off about 550 employees, roughly 10 percent of its staff, in a restructuring to lower operating costs.

Sources

• Rally for Restaurants (Toast), "How COVID-19 is Affecting Restaurants" (March 18, 2020) — original: https://rallyforrestaurants.com/impact-COVID-19-restaurant-insights.html
• TechCrunch, "Restaurant management platform Toast cuts 50% of staff" (April 7, 2020) — original: https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/07/restaurant-management-platform-toast-cuts-50-of-staff/
• Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, "2020 WARN Report" (fiscal year 2020) — original: https://www.mass.gov/doc/warn-report-for-fy-2020/download
• SBA Restaurant Revitalization Fund program page — original: https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/restaurant-revitalization-fund SBA Restaurant Revitalization Fund program page (stored capture)
• Toast, Inc., Form S-1 registration statement (August 27, 2021) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1650164/000119312521258447/d166297ds1.htm
• Toast, Inc., Form 10-K for 2021 (filed March 1, 2022) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1650164/000165016422000009/tost-20211231.htm
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data — original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (stored capture)
• Food On Demand, "Toast Lays Off 550 Employees Amid Restructuring" (February 16, 2024) — original: https://foodondemand.com/02162024/toast-lays-off-550-employees-amid-restructuring/

Back to the table

TripActions / Navan

Company profile: TripActions / Navan

TripActions, a Palo Alto business-travel booking company now called Navan, earned a fee each time a client's employee booked a trip. In March 2020 its clients stopped traveling, and revenue fell by nearly 100 percent, Business Travel News reported from an interview with chief executive Ariel Cohen. By early 2020 TripActions had more than 1,000 employees and had planned to double its workforce that year. It first modeled a 50 percent drop in revenue, then 70 percent, and at 70 percent thought pay cuts and other internal measures would be enough. "We were seeing no usage, and therefore no revenue," Cohen said.

U.S. employees were given notice on March 24, 2020, according to TechCrunch. The company laid off 296 people, 25 of whom were offered other jobs inside the company. The Wall Street Journal put the cut at a fifth to a quarter of the staff, TechCrunch reported; a TripActions spokesman said fewer than 300 people were affected. Recruiters, marketers and travel support agents were hit hardest. The spokesman said U.S. employees got at least three weeks' salary and two months of company-paid COBRA health coverage. A month earlier the company had arranged up to $500 million in debt financing to launch a corporate payment card.

Sources

• TechCrunch, "TripActions lays off hundreds amid COVID-19 travel freeze" (March 25, 2020) — original: https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/25/tripactions-reportedly-lays-off-hundreds-amid-covid-19-travel-freeze/
• Business Travel News, Adam Perrotta, "Amid Layoffs, TripActions CEO Pushes R&D" (March 31, 2020) — original: https://www.businesstravelnews.com/Management/Amid-Layoffs-TripActions-CEO-Pushes-R-D
• PhocusWire, interview with TripActions CEO Ariel Cohen (March 31, 2020) — original: https://www.phocuswire.com/tripactions-ariel-cohen-coronavirus-business-travel

Back to the table

Tripadvisor

Company profile: Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor's chief executive, Stephen Kaufer, estimated that daily bookings and revenue "declined year-over-year generally by more than 90%" from late March through April 2020. On April 28, 2020 he told staff in a town hall that the company was cutting 25 percent of its global workforce, including 600 U.S. employees, Skift reported. The company confirmed more than 900 layoffs; its May 7 earnings release put the cut at about 900 jobs, or 23 percent of its workforce, and brought the number of employees furloughed since March to about 850, primarily at TheFork, its restaurant-reservation business in Europe. Kaufer called the cuts "deliberately and painfully deep," made so that the company would not need a second round.

Before the layoffs Tripadvisor had reduced discretionary spending, cut "non-essential" vendors and frozen hiring, TechCrunch reported. TechCrunch put 600 of the cuts in the United States and Canada. In the first quarter of 2020 it had spent $115 million buying back 4,707,450 of its own shares, and in March it drew $700 million on its credit line.

Most remaining North American employees moved to a temporary 20 percent shorter schedule with a matching pay cut. The 401(k) match stopped for three months and resumed in September 2020. State layoff notices list 90 affected workers in Massachusetts and 40 permanent layoffs in San Francisco; New York's index lists three Tripadvisor notices dated April 28, without head counts. Headcount fell from 4,194 at the end of 2019 to 2,596 a year later, and the 2,596 included about 400 furloughed employees, primarily at TheFork. The 2020 restructuring cost $41 million.

SBA's PPP loan data list no loan to Tripadvisor, SmarterTravel, Cruise Critic, SinglePlatform or FlipKey, and none at the Needham headquarters address. Tripadvisor booked an expected $76 million federal benefit from carrying back its 2020 losses under the CARES Act, and $64 million of it was refunded in 2022. Government grants and other assistance, from programs including CARES Act payroll tax credits and the United Kingdom's job retention scheme, reduced its costs by $12 million in 2020.

Sources

• TechCrunch, "TripAdvisor will cut almost 25% of its workforce as the travel industry languishes" (April 28, 2020) — original: https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/28/tripadvisor-will-cut-almost-25-of-its-workforce-as-the-travel-industry-languishes/
• Skift, "Tripadvisor Lays Off 25 Percent of Global Workforce, Closes Some Offices" (April 28, 2020) — original: https://skift.com/2020/04/28/tripadvisor-lays-off-25-percent-of-global-workforce-closes-some-offices/
• SBA, Paycheck Protection Program loan-level data (FOIA release, data as of September 30, 2024) — original: SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (original: data.sba.gov · stored capture)
• Tripadvisor, "Tripadvisor Reports First Quarter 2020 Financial Results" (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1, May 7, 2020) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1526520/000156459020022868/trip-ex991_7.htm
• Tripadvisor, Inc., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020 (filed February 19, 2021) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1526520/000156459021006939/trip-10k_20201231.htm
• Tripadvisor, Inc., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 (filed February 17, 2023) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1526520/000095017023003200/trip-20221231.htm
• Tripadvisor, Inc., Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2020 (filed May 8, 2020) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1526520/000156459020023544/trip-10q_20200331.htm
• Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, WARN Report for FY 2020 — original: https://www.mass.gov/doc/warn-report-for-fy-2020/download
• California Employment Development Department, WARN Report, July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020 — original: https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/jobs_and_training/warn/warn-report-for-7-1-2019-to-6-30-2020.pdf
• New York State Department of Labor, 2020 WARN Notices — original: https://dol.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2021/04/2020-nys-warn-notices.pdf

Back to the table

Turo

Company profile: Turo

Turo lets private car owners rent out their vehicles, and shelter-in-place orders stopped car rentals in spring 2020. Its registration statement lists the March 2020 cost cuts: less marketing spend, layoffs, furloughs and salary reductions, and the closing of its German business. On March 31, 2020, the filing says, Turo terminated about 33 percent of its employees and temporarily cut the salaries of all who remained. The salary cuts were fully restored by December 31, 2020, and "a majority of these employees were rehired back during the year." Layoffs.fyi put the number laid off at 108, in San Francisco and Phoenix, across all departments. "Consumers are no longer renting cars due to shelter-in-place orders," it wrote, and the same collapse hit Turo's competitors Getaround and Zipcar.

The federal loan followed. SBA's PPP data show the $6,572,900 loan approved on April 28, 2020 through LendingClub Bank, with 439 jobs reported and the whole amount listed for payroll. To get it, Turo had to certify that economic uncertainty made the loan necessary. Its filing warned investors that this certification "does not contain any objective criteria and is subject to interpretation," and that a finding of ineligibility could bring penalties, including under the False Claims Act. In February 2021 Turo applied for forgiveness, and its bank said the full amount was eligible, subject to SBA's decision. Turo repaid the loan in full in July 2021 instead, "given our recent business performance"; SBA's data record it as paid in full on August 10, 2021, with no forgiveness.

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi, "Turo laid off 108 employees" (April 21, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/04/21/turo-laid-off-108-employees/
• SBA, Paycheck Protection Program loan-level data (FOIA release, data as of September 30, 2024), loan 1709117310 — original: SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (original: data.sba.gov · stored capture)
• Turo Inc., Form S-1 registration statement (filed January 10, 2022) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1514587/000119312522005696/d145731ds1.htm

Back to the table

Uber

Company profile: Uber

Uber connects riders and eaters with drivers and couriers who work as independent contractors. "A month ago, Uber was connecting 16 million trips a day," chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi wrote on March 31, 2020. "Now, we're urging our riders to stay home if they can."

On March 23, 2020 Khosrowshahi wrote to President Trump asking that the stimulus then being drafted "include protections and benefits for independent workers, not just employees." "My goal in writing to you is not to ask for a bailout for Uber," he wrote, "but rather for support for the independent workers on our platform." He also asked for a "third way" in labor law. Congress supplied the benefits. The CARES Act's Pandemic Unemployment Assistance covered contractors, and California chose to route Uber and Lyft drivers to that federal program instead of its own unemployment fund, which the companies had not paid into for drivers. KQED's April 2020 headline: "Uber and Lyft Aren't Paying for Drivers' Unemployment: You Are."

SBA's PPP data also carry loans under Uber's name. Twenty-two loans, totaling $294,888 and approved between May 2020 and May 2021, name "Uber Technologies" as the borrower or in the address line at 1455 Market Street, San Francisco. Every one reported a single job and a sole-proprietor or independent-contractor business type; seven were for $20,833. Nineteen were forgiven, for $258,596, and three were charged off. The data do not say who the borrowers were. In June 2020 Uber partnered with Kabbage to give drivers a streamlined application for PPP loans, with Uber pre-filling, with the driver's permission, their payroll information.

The job cuts at Uber itself came in May. On May 6 it laid off 3,700 employees, 14 percent of its staff, in customer support and recruiting, the largest layoff in Layoffs.fyi's pandemic tally to that point, with the chief executive's letter pointing to more. By Layoffs.fyi's count, Uber cut 6,700 employees in May, and it was among ten startups that offered more than eight weeks of severance and more than four months of extended health coverage.

Uber had about 34,000 employees at the end of 2025, against about 26,900 at the end of 2019, before the May 2020 cuts (Forms 10-K for 2019 and 2025).

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi, "Uber and Airbnb's layoffs rank as two of the biggest in tech since COVID-19" (May 6, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/05/06/biggest-tech-layoffs-since-covid-19/
• Layoffs.fyi, "Startup layoffs slowing down, but more employees laid off on average" (May 18, 2020) and "Introducing the Layoffs.fyi Severance Tracker" (June 16, 2020), Analysis category page — original: https://layoffs.fyi/category/analysis/
• CNBC, "Uber CEO asks Trump to support gig workers impacted by the coronavirus" (March 23, 2020) — original: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/23/uber-ceo-asks-trump-to-support-gig-workers-impacted-by-the-coronavirus.html Uber CEO asks Trump to support gig workers (CNBC, March 23, 2020) (stored capture)
• Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi, "10 Million Free Rides and Deliveries to Move What Matters" (March 31, 2020) — original: 10 Million Free Rides and Deliveries to Move What Matters (original: uber.com · stored capture)
• KQED, "Uber and Lyft Aren't Paying for Drivers' Unemployment: You Are, Confirms Newsom" (April 15, 2020) — original: https://www.kqed.org/news/11812496/uber-and-lyft-arent-paying-for-drivers-unemployment-you-are-confirms-newsom
• Fortune, "Uber debuts program to help drivers apply for PPP loans through lender Kabbage" (June 16, 2020) — original: https://fortune.com/2020/06/16/uber-program-driver-application-ppp-loans-kabbage/
• SBA, Paycheck Protection Program loan-level data (FOIA release, data as of September 30, 2024) — original: SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (original: data.sba.gov · stored capture)
• Uber Technologies, Inc., Forms 10-K for 2019 (filed March 2, 2020) and 2025 (filed February 13, 2026): employees at year end

Back to the table

Womply

Company profile: Womply

Womply sold software to small businesses and, during the PPP, ran a loan-application platform for partner lenders; it was a technology agent, not a lender of record. Shutdowns hurt its original market while PPP processing became a new, high-volume business line. No public source gives a pandemic layoff count for it.

The only public headcount figures for the period are the jobs it reported on its own PPP loans, both made by Harvest Small Business Finance to Oto Analytics, Inc.: 108 on a $3,103,440 loan approved April 13, 2020, and 97 on a $1,999,997 second-draw loan approved February 7, 2021. In March 2018 it had described itself as having "nearly 250 employees across offices in San Francisco, California; Portland, Oregon; and Lehi, Utah." California's WARN reports for July 2019 through June 2023 and Utah's WARN notice list contain no notice naming Womply or Oto Analytics.

The corporation was sold in December 2021 and converted to Oto Analytics, LLC, and its small-business software products wound down after the program closed.

Sources

• SuperbCrew interview with Toby Scammell (original: superbcrew.com).
• SBA, Paycheck Protection Program loan-level data (FOIA release)
• California Employment Development Department, WARN report, July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020
• California EDD WARN Report, July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021
• California EDD WARN Report, July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022
• California EDD WARN Report, July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023
• Utah Department of Workforce Services, WARN notices

Back to the table

Wonderschool

Company profile: Wonderschool

Wonderschool helped educators open licensed preschools and day cares in their own homes, in exchange for 10 percent of tuition. On March 26, 2020, Layoffs.fyi reported that Wonderschool had laid off 50 employees, 75 percent of its staff, across all departments, because "families are now keeping their kids at home."

In June 2020 a Wonderschool blog post reported a survey of its directors: "Almost 48%" had applied for the Paycheck Protection Program, against a national family child care rate of 25 percent, and "over 70%" of applicants were approved, against 45 percent nationally. In January 2021 Wonderschool announced a partnership with Womply, which "gives directors FREE 1:1 support in completing their PPP applications." A search of SBA's loan-level PPP data (data as of September 30, 2024) for "Wonderschool" returns no loan to the San Francisco company.

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi, "Wonderschool lays off 75% of employees due to shelter-in-place" (March 26, 2020) — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/03/26/wonderschool-lays-off-75-of-employees/
• Wonderschool, "Helping Home-Based Child Care Navigate COVID19: The Power Of Virtual Community" (June 19, 2020) — original: https://www.wonderschool.com/blog/child-care-provider-resources/helping-home-based-child-care-navigate-covid19-the-power-of-virtual-community
• Wonderschool, "Wonderschool Partners with Womply" (January 26, 2021) — original: https://blog.wonderschool.com/wonderschool-partners-with-womply/
• SBA, Paycheck Protection Program loan-level data (FOIA release, data as of September 30, 2024)

Back to the table

Yelp

Company profile: Yelp

Yelp sells advertising to local businesses. By the end of March 2020, page views and searches for restaurants had fallen about 60 percent from the start of the month, and for its services category, which brings in most of its revenue, about 40 percent, Yelp told the SEC on April 9.

On April 7, 2020 Yelp's board approved a restructuring plan that cut about 1,000 jobs, about 17 percent of the 5,950 employees it had at the end of 2019, furloughed about 1,100 more and cut salaries. Layoffs.fyi logged the layoff on April 9 at 1,000 employees. Executive officers took 30 percent salary cuts from April 19 to August 8, and other senior managers 20 percent. Departing employees got severance and three months of company-paid health insurance; furloughed employees kept most benefits and received two extra weeks of pay. Chief executive Jeremy Stoppelman, whose salary rate was already $1, gave up his base salary for the rest of the year and the stock awards due to vest during it; the proxy statement Yelp filed in 2021 records his 2020 salary as $0.30. Yelp expected the plan to cost $8 million to $10 million, about half of it for furloughed staff. California's WARN list records a Yelp notice dated April 9, 2020, covering 235 San Francisco employees and classed as a temporary layoff.

Sales headcount went from 3,450 at the end of March to 1,850 at the end of June. The 2020 annual report describes the Local sales team shrinking by "more than 50% in April 2020," a process "made possible by our investments in product development and significantly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic." On July 13 Stoppelman told staff by email that 63 more jobs, "primarily in Workplace and Recruiting," were ending because of extended office closures. Yelp restored salaries in August 2020, recalled nearly all furloughed employees between August and October, and ended 2020 with about 3,900 employees.

Yelp does not appear as a borrower in the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program loan data (release of September 30, 2024). Under the CARES Act it deferred $15.0 million of employer Social Security taxes, according to its 2020 annual report.

Sources

• Layoffs.fyi, "Uber and Airbnb's layoffs rank as two of the biggest in tech since COVID-19" (May 6, 2020), layoff table — original: https://layoffs.fyi/2020/05/06/biggest-tech-layoffs-since-covid-19/
• Yelp Inc., 2021 proxy statement (Schedule 14A), including the 2020 letter to shareholders — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1345016/000134501621000022/a2021def14aproxystatement.htm
• Yelp Inc., Form 8-K current report filed April 9, 2020 (restructuring plan) — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1345016/000134501620000018/yelp-20200407.htm
• Yelp Inc., Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2020 — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1345016/000134501620000029/yelp-20200331.htm
• Yelp Inc., Q2 2020 Letter to Shareholders (August 6, 2020), Exhibit 99.2 to Form 8-K — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1345016/000134501620000045/yelpq220exhibit992shareh.htm
• Jeremy Stoppelman, email to Yelp employees, "Update on our timeline" (July 13, 2020), Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1345016/000134501620000041/a8-kexhibit991.htm
• Yelp Inc., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1345016/000134501620000009/yelp-20191231.htm
• Yelp Inc., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020 — original: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1345016/000134501621000015/yelp-20201231.htm
• California Employment Development Department, WARN Report, Summary by Received Date 07/01/2019 - 06/30/2020 — original: https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/jobs_and_training/warn/warn-report-for-7-1-2019-to-6-30-2020.pdf
• U.S. Small Business Administration, PPP FOIA loan-level files, release of September 30, 2024

Back to the table

Zeus Living

Company profile: Zeus Living

Zeus Living rented furnished homes to business travelers for stays of more than 30 days. Its occupancy fell from 90% to below 40%. Business Insider reported on March 24, 2020 that Zeus had laid off 30% of its staff, almost 80 people, citing "the effects of COVID-19 on the real estate industry." In April, Business Insider reported, it told landlords it would not pay April and May rent and asked them to move from leases to revenue-share agreements.

On May 12, chief executive Kulveer Taggar announced a second cut of 73 employees, almost half of those remaining. He wrote that he expected revenue at 55% of the company's original plan, that Zeus would have fewer homes, and that it had decided to return the PPP loan it had applied for. The week before, Bloomberg had reported a $15 million equity-and-debt raise at a $110 million valuation, about half the December price. Departing staff received severance, one month of health insurance, paid-out vacation days and their laptops. SBA's PPP loan data list no loan to Zeus Living.

Business of Business reported in February 2021 that Zeus had cut 60% of its staff in total. In 2022 Zeus cut its workforce in half again, citing "market volatility" and "the possibility of recession." It shut down in November 2023, and the remaining staff of about 120 were laid off; property owners were to be transferred to Blueground.

Sources

• Business Insider, "Airbnb-backed Zeus Living just laid off 30% of staff" (Mar. 24, 2020) — original: https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-backed-zeus-living-cuts-thirty-percent-of-staff-2020-3
• Business Insider, "Airbnb-backed Zeus Living slashes almost half of its remaining staff" (May 12, 2020) — original: https://www.businessinsider.com/zeus-living-cuts-50-of-staff-after-raising-a-downround-2020-5
• Business of Business, "How housing startup Zeus Living won a 'mad fight for survival'" (Feb. 18, 2021) — original: https://www.businessofbusiness.com/articles/zeus-living-kulveer-taggar-twitter-covid-layoffs/
• The San Francisco Standard, "San Francisco rental startup shuts down after 'struggling financially'" (Nov. 16, 2023) — original: https://sfstandard.com/2023/11/16/zeus-living-san-francisco-startup-shut-down/
• SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data — original: https://data.sba.gov/dataset/ppp-foia SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (stored capture)

Back to the table

Zoox

Company profile: Zoox

Zoox, a self-driving startup said to be worth more than $3 billion, stopped testing on public roads in San Francisco and Las Vegas in early March 2020. Its safety drivers, mechanics and vehicle cleaners came through two staffing agencies, Aerotek and Experis, on multiyear contracts. It promised the contract workers pay until April 7.

In the first week of April 2020 Zoox laid off almost all of its contract workers, including the backup drivers who rode in its test cars. The Verge put the number at around 120. The workers received an email ending their jobs effective immediately, locking them out of company email, Zoom and Slack and asking for their laptops and badges back. The email said it should not be "considered a standard layoff," and that Zoox would hire everyone back "once the shelter in place is lifted, unless stated otherwise." The company told The Verge that contractors who could work remotely kept their jobs and that the decision "was not made lightly."

The Verge noted that the agency arrangement kept Zoox's costs down and put "some legal space" between the company and many of its workers. One safety driver who asked an Experis representative about the shutdown received, in reply, a link to information about unemployment insurance. SBA's PPP loan data list no borrower named Zoox. Less than three months after the layoff, on June 26, 2020, Amazon announced an agreement to buy Zoox.

Sources

• The Verge, "Zoox, citing COVID-19 shutdown, lays off its autonomous vehicle backup drivers" (April 6, 2020) — original: https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/6/21210000/zoox-layoff-coronavirus-self-driving-car-safety-drivers
• SBA, Paycheck Protection Program loan-level data (FOIA release, data as of September 30, 2024) — original: SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (original: data.sba.gov · stored capture)

Back to the table