Tech startup Discord lays off 160 San Francisco workers, CEO blames overhiring

FILE: Discord co founder and CEO Jason Citron speaks onstage during the TechCrunch Disrupt conference at Moscone Center on September 6, 2018 in San Francisco, California. Discord is laying off 160 San Francisco workers, the social messaging startup announced in a WARN notice to the city on Thursday.

The notice, required when companies perform , said the employees would officially leave the San Francisco based company on Feb. 2. Dozens of engineers are among the casualties, as are several trust and safety employees, product managers and data scientists, according to the notice. Discord CEO Jason Citron sent a memo to his staff Thursday morning announcing that the company would be laying off a total of 170 workers, or 17% of staff, according to the Verge, which published his full message.

All but 10 are located in San Francisco. Discord spokesperson Camille Ng confirmed the accuracy of the outlet’s report to SFGATE. Advertisement Article continues below this ad “We grew quickly and expanded our workforce even faster, increasing by 5x since 2020,” Citron wrote. “As a result, we took on more projects and became less efficient in how we operated.” He also wrote that the need to “sharpen our focus and improve the way we work together to bring more agility to our organization” informed his decision to lay off staff.

The company has raised almost $1 billion in funding since its 2015 founding, according to . Its popularity during the pandemic as people flocked online, drawing acquisition interest from Microsoft. According to the , Discord chose to end the talks in 2021. Discord is the third San Francisco company with deep video game industry ties to announce a layoff round this week.

Game engine giant slashed 1,800 jobs on Monday, and video streamer announced a 500 worker layoff the next day. Discord’s chat services and easy to use voice channels are popular with both gamers playing synchronously online and artificial intelligence enthusiasts. San Francisco based AI lab Midjourney has an 18 million member .

Advertisement Article continues below this ad In his , Citron said that laid off workers will receive five months of benefits and severance pay, plus an extra week of pay per year of service at the company. Still, by mid afternoon Thursday, laid off Discord employees were already taking to Linkedin to announce that they were available for new jobs.

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