> Anki CEO Boris Sofman today told all Anki staff that they would be terminated on Wednesday and would be given a week of severance pay. Anki has nearly 200 employees.
If that is true this is truly abhorrent and grossly irresponsible towards those employees. Is there more to this story because that is simply awful and I feel bad for those employees and their families with such a short notice?
> Just days ago, employees were told that Anki was aiming to find additional funding after a round of financing fell through.
Guess it didn't happen. This is just sad. I imagine those employees and their families have been through some high highs and now low lows. Hopefully enough of them saw the writing on the wall so they could land themselves elsewhere with little disruption.
I really liked their Cozmo product and have bought two myself. I found it incredibly creative and was hoping for more innovative products from them in the future. It shoved a lot of very clever things into a fairly decently priced product but sadly I think the $150-200 and not sub-$100 price tag prevented a bigger market(?). Even at the $150-200 I was very pleased with the build quality and technology packaged inside. This is just sad all around.
I don't defend or justify a week's severance in any way. But I will point out it's a lot better to have a short severance from a well known company like Anki in 2019 Silicon Valley than it was in 2009 Silicon Valley.
I really feel for these folks who put all the work in, but if there's a time for this to happen that time is now.
It's certainly terrible for their employees, I wonder what the implications will be for their customers? Will Cozmo continue to work if they shut off their servers? I remember they offered an SDK, maybe people can host their own?
If that is true this is truly abhorrent and grossly irresponsible towards those employees. Is there more to this story because that is simply awful and I feel bad for those employees and their families with such a short notice?
> Just days ago, employees were told that Anki was aiming to find additional funding after a round of financing fell through.
Guess it didn't happen. This is just sad. I imagine those employees and their families have been through some high highs and now low lows. Hopefully enough of them saw the writing on the wall so they could land themselves elsewhere with little disruption.
I really liked their Cozmo product and have bought two myself. I found it incredibly creative and was hoping for more innovative products from them in the future. It shoved a lot of very clever things into a fairly decently priced product but sadly I think the $150-200 and not sub-$100 price tag prevented a bigger market(?). Even at the $150-200 I was very pleased with the build quality and technology packaged inside. This is just sad all around.