
Treehouse lays off 21% - tarr11
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-08-22-coding-startup-treehouse-trims-staff-to-cross-the-chasm-to-profitability
======
lubos
> Also going away are the company’s enviable working hours. Carson says he’s
> rolling back the company’s 32-hour work week, where he and his employees
> took Fridays off.

Let me find his blog post about that 4-day week. Oh, there it is...

[http://ryancarson.com/post/21708810513/4-day-
week](http://ryancarson.com/post/21708810513/4-day-week)

~~~
choward
What a hypocrite. I remember seeing several job postings. I'm so glad I didn't
fall for the 4 day workweek bait and switch. I hope everyone quits.

~~~
dang
This comment crosses into not-ok territory for HN. It's fine to argue, say,
that there was reason to be skeptical. It's not fine to deny good faith on the
part of others or be outright nasty ("I hope everyone quits".) Even if that's
deserved, which I doubt, it pollutes the environment here.

HN comments should be charitable in the sense of preferring the strongest
plausible interpretation of something. The blog post you're talking about is 4
years old. It doesn't seem plausible that this was a 4-year-long bait and
switch. A much stronger interpretation is that circumstances changed.

------
cocktailpeanuts
“Every venture-funded company has to cross the chasm to profitability, and we
decided the time was now,”

==> .....I don't even know where to start...

------
exolymph
It makes sense that they're firing people, since they're bringing the workweek
back up to 40 hours from 32.

~~~
choward
The funny thing is that layoffs reduce morale enough. Then taking away
Fridays? Ha. I'd definitely be finding a new job if I worked there.

~~~
matt_wulfeck
Taking away Friday? Personally that sounds amazing. I once worked 10-hours
four days a week. Having an extra weekday added incredible value and
productivity to my life, and more than made up for the 10-hour days.

------
dkhenry
In the article they mentioned "Crossing the Chasm". That theory comes from
this book [1] which I have only recently read. Whats important to notice is
this book was written in 1991 and what it lacks is how the entire technology
market has shifted in modern times. I don't think you reach a place with
product line maturity, especially with a SaaS offering where you can ever tone
down R&D and focus on sales and marketing your product. Unless you have some
hook to keep your customers in your ecosystem having a SaaS means I can jump
ship to whoever is better at this moment.

1\. [https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-3rd-Disruptive-
Mainstr...](https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-3rd-Disruptive-
Mainstream/dp/0062292986)

~~~
cocktailpeanuts
1\. The "chasm" mentioned in the article has nothing to do with the chasm
mentioned in the book "Crossing the chasm".

2\. The book was written in 1991 but it still surprises me how timeless it is.
If you think the theory is out of date, you probably didn't understand the
theory well enough.

3\. That company mentioned in the article is not a SaaS company.

~~~
dkhenry
The chasm is entirely the same chasm defined in the book, they need to obtain
profitability, either their plans are to cut expenses and have no growth, or
to cross into profitability by starting to acquire early majority customers.
Additionally the book is not nearly as timeless as you would think. Its
telling that all the marquee examples from the first two prints are pretty
much out of business right now, and a few of the examples from the third
printing are either greatly declined or also out of business. Finally a
company that provides a subscription based, online platform for ongoing
consumption of education services is pretty much a textbook example of a SaaS.

The theory of trim down and assault a targeted market to cross into a larger
market space is sound, but if you are trimming down your future like the book
suggests ( i.e. fire most of your sales and R&D staff, but none of your
marketing staff ) then in a modern software world you won't survive long once
you reach the other side.

------
inputcoffee
It would be very interesting to know where the layoffs were -- tech,
marketing, course development etc.

(1) It would help us understand the significance of the move, (2) it would
allow us to (wrongly) opine on the wisdom of the cuts, and (3) it would let us
understand where they are in the lifecycle.

~~~
SmellTheGlove
From what I could tell, some tech (front end developers and data people), as
well as product designers, and some engineering management. I'm not connected
to the company, but that's what I could tell from the public info (articles
and LinkedIn).

------
newsat13
Their ads where everywhere on youtube.

