According to The Information, the company that lets you pay a celebrity to record a custom message or hop on a video call with you is laying off 87 people. Employees got the news at an all-hands meeting.
Steven Galanis, the company's co-founder and CEO, says the layoffs are a correction for the growth of the company. The company went from just over 100 to nearly 400 employees, according to Galanis. Variety reported that the company's revenue was 4.5 times higher in 2020 than it had been in 2019. Galanis told the outlet that the success was partially due to the fact that many actors turned to the platform after other projects were put on hold.
It sounds like that prediction didn't pan out, given that the company is now downsizing.
Galanis asked other companies to hire the members of theCameo Fameo that have been laid off. The tone is awkward, to say the least. It's almost always uncomfortable to see corporate culture crash into the realities of capitalism when executives say that their company is like family and then let a large chunk of employees go. If you use a cutesy name for your workers, it's probably not going to make a difference when you announce layoffs.
CEOs probably face an emotional toll when letting people go, they have let down people who put their livelihoods in their care. They should not call it a brutal day at the office because it was likely worse for the people actually losing their jobs.
Galanis made an analogy about trading beads for the island of Manhattan when he said that Web3 was like Europe's colonization of the Americas. This was supposed to make Web3 look good. Galanis told Variety that he wanted to make sure the company had time and space to nurture newer business segments like Cameo for Business, Represent and web3.