{"id":1244834,"date":"2022-11-05T19:29:18","date_gmt":"2022-11-05T19:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/11\/05\/tweeps-twitter-ghanamma-com\/"},"modified":"2022-11-05T19:29:18","modified_gmt":"2022-11-05T19:29:18","slug":"tweeps-twitter-ghanamma-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/11\/05\/tweeps-twitter-ghanamma-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Tweep\u2019s Twitter \u2022 – Ghanamma.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week\u2019s startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and Equity co-host <\/em>Natasha Mascarenhas.<\/em><\/a> To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been living through a lot of tech history over the past two years, but the brutal Twitter layoffs feel especially sad, complex and exhausting to anyone who follows the industry. We knew it was coming, then we were told it wasn\u2019t, then it most certainly was, then it did. Reports say that half of Twitter\u2019s 7,500 team will lose their jobs.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have a hot take, or a Musk-related quip about this moment. I just have empathy for the people who lost, or might lose, their jobs after investing time, energy and care in building Twitter. Twitter employees are turning to the hashtag #LoveWhereYouWorked<\/a>, a riff on the internal hashtag #LoveWhereYouWork, to thank each other, say goodbye and share the personal news. As one former employee put it, the new hashtag is a \u201cbittersweet phrase \u2014 not because I\u2019m gone, but because it\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve covered dozens and dozens of layoff stories over the past year, all with a different shade of the same statement: \u201cthe macroeconomic environment has caused us to adjust expectations, impacting a percent of our workforce.\u201d One thing that strikes me about Twitter\u2019s layoffs is how the way they were conducted was devoid of emotion and acknowledgment. Even Better.com, which conducted one of the worst layoffs of the year, did better. See below:<\/p>\n

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On Thursday evening, all Twitter employees received an email stating that they would be informed of their employment status at 9 a.m. PDT on Friday. Each email was to be sent with the subject line \u201cYour Role at Twitter.\u201d If an employee is keeping their job, they were to be notified via their work email \u2014 if they are let go, they would be notified on a personal address.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended,\u201d Thursday\u2019s email read. \u201cIf you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The email was impersonally signed: \u201cTwitter.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

put together a Twitter thread for former Tweeps looking for next jobs<\/a>, which will continue to be updated. While I joked that some high-ranking members may join Andreessen Horowitz next, I\u2019m honestly curious how we\u2019ll see the alumni network pick up their next jobs. Will it be in startups? Or venture? Or will they seek refuge in roles that feel less risky than tech roles? Or perhaps start a career entirely outside of the tech industry?<\/p>\n

I can only imagine this experience feels nothing like whiplash; instead, maybe it feels like an excruciatingly warm spotlight finally letting up, only to find yourself looking around, not really recognizing the audience and stage that you were once in charge of entertaining.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just as lost as the rest of us when it comes to predicting what\u2019s next, but it\u2019s clear that today marks an inflection point in tech history. What Twitter and its alumni will make of the moment is another question altogether. As someone who loves to nerd out about networks and how they start and stop people, my DMs are open.<\/a><\/p>\n

In the rest of this newsletter, we\u2019ll talk about Gen Z turnover, fintech trends and Twitter again. As always, you can follow me<\/a> on Twitter for my thoughts every day of the week.<\/p>\n

Gen Z VC<\/h2>\n

Meagan Loyst<\/a> announced this week that she is leaving venture firm Lerer Hippeau to go full time on a community she\u2019s been building for years: Gen Z VC.<\/a> In a Twitter thread announcing the news, Loyst said she\u2019s teaching a VC 101 course, starting a newsletter, working on content creation and working with firms to demystify the Gen Z generation.<\/p>\n

The news comes around a month after GV\u2019s Terri Burns announced she was leaving the firm where she became its youngest and first Black female individual to gain the partner title. As Burns shared with in 2020, her investment thesis is simple: Gen Z.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why it\u2019s important: <\/strong>While we don\u2019t yet know what Burns is doing next, her and Loyst\u2019s departure from institutional firms during a volatile moment in tech is a good reminder of how cyclical ventures can be. We recently recorded an Equity podcast about the job of a venture capitalist and how that\u2019s expanding and rewriting itself as time goes on: Investors are either ghosting, quiet quitting or rewriting their entire playbook.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image Credits:<\/strong> MirageC (opens in a new window)<\/span> \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Another section about layoffs<\/h2>\n

Stripe and Chime announced layoffs this week, in a back-to-back reminder that fintech is still experiencing volatility despite its ability to attract venture dollars.<\/p>\n