MV #006: Laid off? How not to get laid off twice!
Lessons, stories, observations and analyses on software sales, building companies and creating customer value.
Read time: 9 min
👋 Hi there, happy Sunday!
🤔 How not to get laid off twice
Startup and Big Company Life
If you’re reading this, you probably work in tech. Somewhere in a go-to-market team, and most likely in a company that has been growing fast and selling software to enterprises.
Last week, I wrote about layoffs. (here)
Companies are adjusting. Less growth means less need for go-to-market team members to build pipeline, sell deals, demo product and look after customers.
That means. Hiring freezes. Pulled headcount. Layoffs.
High-growth companies are particularly vulnerable to this; they ride higher highs but fall much deeper too. According to layoffs.fyi 670 startups laid off 85’982 people this year.
🤔 How did we get here?
Party like it’s 2020? Nope!
In 2020 and 2021, too many startups received too much money.
Headlines like the one from TechCrunch above show just how nuts the environment was.
Many startups that got funding had no product, no revenue, or anything else. And the ones that had revenue raised at ridiculous multiples. They hired and grew too fast for their good without a path to becoming a sustainable business.
Where there’s no value (or little value), there’s no long-term future.
What had to happen happened.
People are losing their jobs. Often great people.
It sucks.
And companies that have not had any layoffs yet leave employees worried.
Rightly so.
A checklist to avoid getting laid off twice
This newsletter edition is for job seekers. Read on to learn how to vet your next job opportunity in a recession.
The reason for writing this is simple: When I talked to job seekers, I was surprised that some are looking at new career opportunities the wrong way.
There are no guarantees, of course. I hope you reduce the chance of getting into a company where you’ll be laid off using the LIFO principle. Last in, first out.
But equally, I want to help anyone to see red flags early and evaluate their situation. Most forget to take into account important aspects when picking their companies.
What job seekers asked in 2021
What are the paths for career progression at your company?
Can you tell me more about the company culture?
How much will you pay me and what is the compensation package?
What does success look like in this role?
How do you help onboard and set new employees up for success?
What perks do you provide?
How long until I get promoted?
When’s the IPO?
Do you get together as a team often?
What is the team like?
In 2022 different things matter. Ask different questions.
But in 2022, there are other, more critical questions you have to ask. You have to do your due diligence as a candidate.
Avoid basic mistakes if you want to be in charge of your destiny and not get laid off twice (or more). Be rigorous and focused in your interview process. Interview the company as much as they interview you.
The way I look at this is simple. There’s no value in sitting at a great table with fantastic food and great people if that table is on the Titanic 🧊🚢
Unless the company has a clear plan forward and is appropriately managed, you will not get to the point of growing your career.
What should job seekers be asking?
Has the company changed their operating plan for the next year based on the changes in the macro?
What is the company doing differently now compared to 12 months ago to be set up for success?
How much runway does the company have?
What is the churn rate? (Or other metrics that matter. Forget vanity metrics.)
What is your ICP (ideal customer profile)?
What accounts will I get?
What is the plan to expand the ICP?
What teams will support me? Specifically, ask about SDR and SE support.
What is your tech stack?
Who runs RevOps and what’s their approach to defining GTM?
What customers in the vertical will you have me sell into?
What product gaps is the company working on to unlock more growth?
How do you justify value and ROI in deals?
How are the execs supporting us in deals?
What do reps/SEs/CSMs do to be successful here?
The list is not exhaustive. But hopefully, it will give you an idea of questions to ask. It’s more strategic, and the hiring manager might not know all the answers. Regardless, ask them, see how they react, and have them follow up with responses.
🚩Red Flags
Red flags are cause for concern. Always bear this in mind. If you are joining a startup, red flags come in different shades.
Don’t expect it to be perfect. There’s always stuff that’s not great, and that’s why it’s fun being at a startup and helping build it.
But there are deep red coloured flags. Be careful and dig deeper when you hear these types of things.
What does that sound like?
We haven’t replanned anything. Everything is going up in the right.
We just decided to cancel [insert tech that you really need, like Sales Navigator] to save costs.
We don’t have anyone in RevOps. You can sell to anyone you like.
We just have one SE, she’s based in California. (that is, if you’re based in the UK/EU)
Our market potential is unlimited. We don’t see any headwinds.
We have a firm plan in place. [Doesn’t follow up with details.]
We don’t have SDRs. We need you to build your own pipeline. But we have a lot of inbound.
The comp is impressive. Your OTE can be $X00k. But when you ask who achieved their OTE you don’t get a straightforward answer.
We have great product-market-fit in this new vertical. We already have 2 customers in the US. You’ll crush it.
You get the idea. Not everything can be perfect. Leadership is blind if they don’t acknowledge this. If they and their hiring managers have not been informed about it, then that’s another issue.
Doing your own research
Finally, you can get a lot more great questions by digging deeper on your own.
Here’s what you should do and what to look for when evaluating your next opportunity. You will reduce the risk of jumping on a sinking ship considerably.
G2Crowd
G2 is a B2B software review platform. Honest reviews by real users.
Is it mostly positive? Is it negative? What is negative?
You can tell from what customers say if they see the value in the solution, and you can also use this in an interview. I always encourage job seekers to be upfront in interviews.
Here’s an example:
Also, have a look at the G2 grid. How does your target company compare to other players? What are the differentiators? This is a great indicator of how your sales cycles will go. You’ll know if you’ll face product gaps and competitors.
Glassdoor
Glassdoor captures employees’ and candidates’ reviews about their experiences.
What to look for? Read the most recent review in the company, and see what people are saying. Scan for deeper issues, and recurring themes on culture, product and overall company strategy.
You can also filter by region. Maybe there’s a bad apple amongst many great offices. You don’t want to land in a bad office.
Glassdoor also lists salaries, candidate reviews during job interviews and CEO approval ratings.
Job Listings
Job posts are often treasure troves of intel.
What to look out for? What teams are hiring? What type of experience levels are needed? Check the business intelligence, reporting, and analysis jobs too. That’ll tell you if this company has got their s*** together.
Even if you’re a sales rep and won’t care too much about this in the field, you want to know that this startup is data-driven and structured in how they run its business. If not, surprises happen, and bad decisions are made. I don’t like either of these, and neither should you.
Website
Duh. Very obvious, you might say. Hear me out.
What to look out for? Does the company have a clear, value-based approach that you can see yourself pitching? Check the menu structure. How many products does this company have? What industries are they selling to?
For instance, imagine a startup listing under their industries sections something like Media, Healthcare and Manufacturing. Check LinkedIn and the job ads to see if they reflect that there’s a team supporting those industries.
You can validate your thinking in the interviews. If there’s nothing, that means this company just started selling or is experimenting in that space.
If your role is to build a new industry, then make sure you know exactly where the company is and its plan.
If you’re a rep used to selling to this industry, that’s great, but does the company have the supporting infrastructure (sales material, marketing case study, industry-tailored demos, …) for this type of customer?
No matter how good you are, if you’re not set up for success, it’ll be an uphill battle from day 1.
Crunchbase
Crunchbase is an indispensable resource if you’re looking to join a startup.
What to look out for? Find out who the investors are and when the last round of funding was. Typically, if the round was more than 18 months ago, you should ask about funding and how their financial situation.
Startups often raise investment rounds, so-called Series that go from A to F (or more sometimes). Each round is designated to give you about 18-24 runway to build your startup. The picture below shows an example.
Onfido raised more than two years ago. That’s not a bad sign at all. They might be closer to profitability and manage burn really well. So, it can be a good sign. They might be in a dire situation if they ran a growth-at-all-costs strategy. Either way, dig into this during the interview.
Also, check who the investors were. If they have a tier 1 VC like Sequoia, it likely means a great board that ensures rigour, governance and professionalism in a startup.
Conclusion
I hope this gives you more perspective on how to evaluate startups. If you’re at a startup, you should probably have some of the answers for this too. Getting laid off sucks. By following some of these tips, you can reduce the risk considerably.
🥹 The best of LinkedIn this week
➡️ You absolutely don’t need a co-founder to start a company.
➡️ Dry-powder might never get deployed to new and upcoming startups.
➡️ I’ll be speaking at London’s DemofestX about how AE/SE partnership can unlock value
🗞️ In other news
Salespeople, remember a deal is NEVER DONE until it’s DONE. (my take and news update)
🤓 Don’t know me? Here’s the about section.
My name is Semir Jahic. I’m a self-confessed news junkie, and I’m also a student of startups and obsessed with what it takes to build something of value.
In More Value, I’ll share what I’m reading, learning, and observing to help you create more value.
More value is for go-to-market professionals in Sales, Customer Success, Delivery and anywhere else in the enterprise software industry.
If that’s you, subscribe.
🙏 That’s it. Thank you for reading.
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