Introhive Layoffs To Impact 12 Fredericton Employees
FREDERICTON – The decision to lay off 16-per-cent of Introhive’s staff was a preventative measure as a potential recession looms, says co-founder and CEO Jody Glidden.
He said it was getting obvious they’d need to do a slight reduction in staff, watching the declining investment in the tech sector.
Introhive’s layoffs will lead to the loss of 12 jobs in Fredericton – about 10-per-cent of the tech startups’ staff in the city.
“You never want to do anything like this, but if you don’t, the companies that don’t can find themselves in big trouble, when nobody wants to invest in them,” he said.
“You never want to lose anyone, but the most important thing is to keep the company really healthy because that’s what allows you to continue to grow in the long run.”
He noted the majority of the layoffs will impact staff in India. In addition to its staff in Fredericton, Saint John and Fredericton, Introhive has operations in Chennai, India; London, Toronto, Chicago and Miami.
Introhive’s decision to reduce staff is part of a larger 2022 trend that has seen the high levels of investment in the tech industry that started in 2020 dropping drastically, with even tech giants like Apple, Amazon and Meta impacted by the tech sector’s recent decline.
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Glidden, a veteran of recessions in 2001 and 2008, told Huddle he’s recognized the patterns of a burgeoning recession and knows what to do this time around.
“The whole tech industry has had clear signals from the markets and we wanted to pump the breaks a little bit and get a little closer to profitability,” he said.
“We’ve been following the industry pretty closely and it’s become petty clear when we started seeing hiring freezes and layoffs, and everything across the industry…We saw evaluations for tech companies dropping and saw investors saying they were now only investing in companies that are close to profitability.”
Glidden sees conservative growth in Introhive’s future for the duration of the recession he sees coming.
“Most investors and CEOs felt that someday, we were going to get a recession because that hot streak was going to eventually slow down – the economy was just burning so hot, for so many years, said Glidden.
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Glidden noted that the recent hot economic streak lasted from about 2010 until the current year.
“As the years tick by, everyone was wondering how long the hot streak can last before a correction – and now we have a correction,” Glidden said.
He noted that he anticipates a “typical” recession of one-to-two years.
“We’re going to focus on execution and try to do more with less, be as efficient as we can, and come together as a team,” said Glidden.
“It’s best to be conservative now, and when businesses start to heat up again, we’ll put the pedal to the metal and be more aggressive as well.”
Glidden said an immediate short-term goal for him is helping employees who have been laid off find new jobs.
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“We have a lot of friends who are CEOs and owners of tech companies. We’re trying to network with those people, and reach out to find (former employees) a new position.”
Introhive, a developer of artificial intelligence for customer relationship management, has a mandate to help increase revenue and improve productivity with its software.
Glidden has the entrepreneurial experience to navigate this period from Introhive’s Fredericton home base.
“Every tech startup I’ve done – there have been a number of them since the nineties – I’ve started them from Fredericton,” said Glidden, a Miramichi native.
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas at [email protected].