🍪 Tis the season for layoffs and crypto drama

Good morning, friends. If you’re having a rough week, keep reading. We’ve got loads of people in this email that probably have it even worse.

This is gonna be a big one, so kick back, grab a candy cane, and enjoy this dumpster fire. Let’s dive in.

In the oven this week:

• 😥 'Tis the season to get laid off

• ☠️ The wildest drama in crypto right now

• 📊 Weekly poll: who's really got diamond hands?

• 🍪 Cookie crumbs: 5 bite sized treats

• 🍫 Chocolate chips: 5 of our favorite finds this week

• 😂 Snickerdoodles: just some memery

FRESHLY BAKED

'TIS THE SEASON

Ya gotta love when it finally starts feelin’ like the holidays. 

The peppermint mocha is back in season. Engineers are already checking in their last bits of code for the year. You can practically hear the OKRs walking over to next quarter. 

But you know who’s got no holiday cheer this year?? 

Big tech. 

They’re caroling employees straight out the door this week with employee layoff announcements. Let’s take a look at the carnage:

• Lyft: ~700 people (13%)

• Stripe: 1,100 people (14%)

• Twitter: 3,750 people (50%)

• Meta: 11,000 people (13%)

• Amazon & Google: hiring freeze, internal consolidation...are layoffs next???

It’s so bad someone even made a tech layoff tracker for a live view of the wreckage. 

Why is this happening?

Tech hired like crazy over the last few years (just look at Google, which doubled its workforce from 2017-2021). Now that the economy is going sour, they're walking it all back to cut costs. 

If Meta cuts 11K people at an average salary of 200K, they're saving $2.2B a year. That's nothing to sneeze at.

Our take: 

Layoffs are never ideal, but can be clarifying when companies prioritize what matters and curb the excess. It’s also a great time for startups to pick up top talent. Plus let’s be real, was Twitter really doing 7K employees’ worth of work anyway?? 🙄

A MESSAGE FROM CHARTR

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THE BIG PIZOOKIE

FTX IS GOING DOWN

Two of the largest crypto exchanges were sparring so much all week you might think they were the real housewives of Beverly Hills. And as of this writing, it’s lookin' like FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, is on the brink of collapse.

This one’s a doozy, so here’s the TLDR of the TLDR: 

• Binance was an early investor in FTX and has a huge position in FTT, which is FTX’s token. 

• A few days ago, CZ (founder of Binance) finds out that SBF (founder of FTX) has been lobbying against them to regulators.

• He hits back by announcing that Binance would sell their $2B stake in FTT to "manage risk," basically suggesting that FTX was not doin’ so hot financially. 

• At this point, FTT holders panic and start making withdrawals, since Binance selling their position would send prices crashing. In the frenzy, FTT crashed 35%+ overnight.

• The next day, Binance announces it will acquire FTX to help them manage the liquidity crunch. People speculate that this was all part of a strategic plan by the almighty CZ.

• But yesterday, Binance decides to back out of the deal after discovering FTX mishandled customer funds, leaving FTX to the wolves. 

• Then CZ publishes this memo, telling employees that this was not a master plan and that FTX going down is not a win for Binance because it shakes consumer confidence in the entire industry 

• Meanwhile SBF is now warning investors of bankruptcy unless they get a cash infusion 

Ironically, FTX spent much of this year bailing out other crypto firms, and was generally thought of by investors as "the responsible one"… looks like you just never know.

POLL OF THE WEEK

CRYPTO VIBE CHECK 

Let's see who's really got diamond hands.

COOKIE CRUMBS

BITE SIZED TREATS

CHOCOLATE CHIPS

OUR FAVORITE FINDS

• 46 fitness principles to transform your life

• Danny Meyer (big restaurateur that started Gramercy Tavern, Shake Shack, Union Square Cafe) on the five A's: the right way to make mistakes

• Someone put together a ranked list of companies with the best value RSUs so you can figure out if you’re getting a good deal on your equity. The list accounts for risk against the S&P 500, vesting schedules, and trading windows.

• What the receipt checkers at Costco are actually checking for.

• 23 uncomfortable truths about life.

SNICKERDOODLES

THURSDAY MEMES  

What'd you think about this email?

• 🍪🍪🍪 Top notch!

• 🍪🍪 Meh... could use more milk

• 🍪 Undercooked, do better