Unicorn layoffs prompt more startups to consider acqui-hiring – TechCrunch

The sheet brought Zajaczkowski to Stavvy, an online home mortgage start-up also based in Boston, for an interview. Today, a bulk of Stavvys group are ex-Toasters, consisting of Zajaczkowski.

” I believe one of the benefits of hiring from a company that is sort of an iconic Boston company, is that you know what the employing practices are,” Ligris stated. “Theres been a level of vetting that has actually taken place.”

Alex Zajaczkowski was just months into her function at Toast, a dining establishment point-of-sale software application company, when she was release throughout COVID-19 layoffs. Toast, last valued at $5 billion, cut 50% of its personnel through layoffs and furloughs.

Stavvy co-founders Kosta Ligris and Josh Feinblum, however, say hiring a pod of employees can backfire without correct diligence.

” I believe I got on the boat a little bit quicker than others because I wanted that security a bit much faster,” she stated. She and former Toast associates formed a Slack to communicate about layoffs, their task searches and what lay ahead. Toast developed an opt-in spreadsheet for employers that noted laid-off staff members.

Zajaczkowski said she started getting tasks within a week.

Stavvys onboarding of former Toast staff members recommends that the layoffs which rocked startups in March might be an opportunity for smaller sized startups to scoop up star skill that already has chemistry. While acqui-hiring is not a brand-new principle, it has new weight in an environment reeling from mass layoffs and a shift to remote-first work.