Compass: Cut 15% of Staff; Revenue Then Rose 56%

Category: real estate technology
Pandemic-layoff role: Additional sourced company
Last updated: 2026-09-29

Pandemic-role map

Reader shorthand: real-estate brokerage that cut 15% of its staff in March 2020 while modeling a 50% revenue drop, then grew revenue 56% that year.
What Compass did for customers: ran a residential brokerage whose agents used its software; it earns commissions on home sales.
What changed in the pandemic: showings fell more than 60% in the first weeks of lockdown; by the end of the year revenue was up 56%.
Relief role: not a lender or relief intermediary; no loan to Compass's New York parent appears in SBA's PPP loan data.

Before the pandemic

Compass, founded by Robert Reffkin, was a private New York brokerage backed by SoftBank's Vision Fund. Its revenue grew from $884.7 million in 2018 to $2.39 billion in 2019, when it lost $388.0 million.

What the pandemic changed

On March 23, 2020, Compass laid off about 375 employees, 15% of its staff, GeekWire reported, publishing Reffkin's email. "We aren't just facing an economic recession, we are facing an economic standstill," he wrote. The email said showings were already down more than 60% and that "we are modelling a 6-month decline in revenue of 50%." Laid-off staff received "enhanced severance and COBRA health insurance." Reffkin cut his salary to $0 and the executive team cut its pay by 25%. "I believe that in 100 days the real estate market will bounce back," he wrote.

The company's 2021 prospectus lists the measures as "remote work, reductions-in-force and certain salary reductions," and adds: "the salary reductions have been reversed and we have made our employees whole through additional equity awards." It recorded about $6.6 million of restructuring costs in the first quarter of 2020, mostly severance.

The pandemic year

The model was wrong in the right direction. Revenue for 2020 was $3.72 billion, up $1.33 billion or 55.9% from 2019, which the prospectus attributes mainly to more transactions from more agents on the platform. The net loss narrowed to $270.2 million.

After the first shock

Compass listed on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2021 with a $450 million offering at $18.00 a share; SoftBank's Vision Fund and other large holders indicated interest in buying up to $140 million of the offering. Revenue reached $6.42 billion in 2021, fell to $6.02 billion in 2022 and $4.89 billion in 2023, and recovered to $5.63 billion in 2024 and $6.96 billion in 2025. The company lost money every year: $494.1 million in 2021, $601.5 million in 2022, $321.3 million in 2023, $154.4 million in 2024 and $58.5 million in 2025.

Where the company is now

Compass completed its all-stock combination with Anywhere Real Estate on January 9, 2026, with Reffkin as chairman and chief executive. At the end of 2025, before the combination closed, it had about 37,000 agents on its platform, 21,190 of them principal agents. Reffkin signed the company's 2025 annual report as chief executive in February 2026.

Compass Profile: Pandemic Layoffs, Business Model, and Current Status