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Shoe Drops at Jobster: Adjustment or Decapitation ? follow this blog post

posted by on Jan. 4, 2007
I hope Jason Goldberg does survive as CEO because its still his baby and what kind of blogger and advocate for transparancy would want him to fail for blogging and being transparent ?
 
On the other hand, 60/145 is a pretty big ratio of cuts, and while its not half the workforce, it appears to be calculated to NOT be half the workforce so as not to confirm rumors to that effect.  In other words, a few more may occur as an aftershock.
 
I think the most interesting part of the actual event is the fact that while Jason survives for now, pretty much every other key exec was whacked.
 
Jobster confirmed that as part of the layoff, a handful of executives also were let go, including Tracy Lawrence Burman, president of business operations; Todd Leeson, vice president of marketing; Brad Kendall, senior vice president of sales; and Kerry Rupp, vice president of business development.
 
That's some handful.  Thats a little more than a slight change of course.  Thats a wholesale rebuild of the way they sell, operate, relate to other companies, and market.   Other than development, whats left for a tech company other than the blogging dept. ? 
 
There have been lots of posts lamenting the negativity  of the whole scene and advising that rumors are just that,  but it appears that the information was well-founded, and Jobster clearly chose over and over to live the public life that it does by setting very high expectations, marketing heavily to industry insiders, and perhaps funding itself beyond it's likely prospects.  
 
    
 
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  • 1 point 2 years ago

    I blogged about Recruitmax changing to Vurv, which I thought (and still think) was a mistake- it might have made more sense farther down the track ....Vurv is somewhat of a different story than Jobster for any number of reasons: they started small with a real product, they have not been so flamboyant regarding expectations, they are not based in a tech haven, they did not hammer on intra-industry marketing, and they seemed to pace themselves more in line with actual business needs.

    Some things are similar- they took a good chunk of venture money, they wanted to be bigger than their core product/market may have justified, and I think they tend(ed) to sell first and ask questions later-good fit or poor fit on the customer side. I hate to hear about layoffs but I think Vurv is a real company with real products- with plenty of life left in em.

    All that said, they are competitors and I wish them the worst ;-)

  • 1 point 2 years ago

    Well said. Others must have taken notice of Jason's actions as well. Heard that Derek laid off 20 people this morning at Vurv. Some big titles too. I'd be interested to see your take on this, al-la the above obit you did for Jobster. As a former Vurv-ette told me this morning, expect to see a brain-drain mentality here as they trickle out the door like they did at Brass Ring last quarter.