Managing Downturn

This post has been edited for more clarity.

When it comes to making announcements on behalf of Teleport, I have grown accustomed to posting exclusively positive news. These announcements have included new product launches, funding rounds with top-tier investors, breaking growth records and hitting financial milestones ahead of schedule. I am honored, grateful and humbled as the CEO of Teleport to be responsible as the company’s lead spokesperson to get this news out into the marketplace. But it is also my responsibility as CEO of Teleport to announce the not-so-great news as part of our commitment to transparency. Unfortunately, this news falls into this second category.

On Friday, July 1, 2022, we had to lay off 15 Teleporters out of our current headcount of 230 full-time employees. This may only represent a little more than 6 percent of the employee base but for those affected it is a big deal and for that I am sorry.

As the economic situation has changed and efficiency is now the focus, we had no choice but to make this adjustment. Teleport’s strategy for reducing costs in anticipation of macroeconomic headwinds this year was to make a small change in our Sales and Customer Support team to focus on increasing efficiencies while still being able to serve all markets. Moreover, in anticipation of fewer net new hires in 2022, we reduced the size of our in-house recruiting team. Despite these changes, Teleport is not in a hiring freeze and will continue to add headcount across all departments in 2022. These layoffs were about realignment, not stopping growth.

Returning closer to normalcy brings clarity to decision making. This layoff was about aligning resources where most needed to continue to grow the business. Teleport is well capitalized to weather any economic downturn, which gives us many years of runway without requiring additional capital and the company is still growing, hiring and innovating.

The best technology and products win when budgets are tougher to get, so Teleport is well positioned for the downturn. We have a superior product whose security architecture does not rely on the #1 cause of security breaches–stolen credentials like passwords and keys. We will continue to invest in this innovation that customers have come to rely on from Teleport.

For those 15 former Teleporters impacted by the layoff, the company is providing all of them with a severance package that includes salary and healthcare benefits while they transition to new full-time positions at other companies.

Thank you for all your hard work and commitment to building Teleport. This is a tough moment, but we will learn from it and emerge a stronger company as a result.

Onward! Ev