Porch, one of the many companies positioning themselves to be the go-to place for “home services,” has laid off 90 members of its staff according to Geekwire. We’ve reached out to Porch for a statement (See the update below).
The company has raised $98.85M to date in 3 rounds. Their competitors include Amazon, Angie’s List, Pro.com and HomeAdvisor, just to name a few.
We just covered their acquisition of mobile advice platform, Fountain, and nary a word was mentioned about any trouble or pivots. I find it highly unlikely that there was any specific tech or talent that could allow for letting 90 people go, but…what do I know.
Geekwire described the moves of the Seattle startup with tons-o-funding as part of a “broader reshuffling and strategy shift” which includes the departures of a few key executives. The company is also currently trying to recruit and hire a CTO, which sounds like a pretty vulnerable position for a company with that much money raised.
Geekwire reports on the executive exodus:
Separately, at least three Porch executives have left the company recently: Jay Allen, previously the company’s chief technology officer; Joanna Lord, who was the company’s vice president of marketing; and Kiran Akkineni, who was vice president of analytics for the company. James Straub, who was one of the company’s directors of engineering, has also recently left and taken a new position at Amazon.
Naturally, Porch’s CEO, Matt Ehrlichman, is painting a happy face on the layoffs and changeups, telling Geekwire:
Porch is in a healthy spot as a company. We’re continuing to hire we’re continuing to grow, and I’m excited about the future.
The last time we heard about headcount was around their last funding found (a massive $65M), and it was pegged at 300 or so. So yeah, 90 is no small number. A source told us a bit more about the situation, saying there were about fifty others in a room together being told of their imminent layoff. Multiple departments were affected, we’re told, with people being let go after joining only months ago.
UPDATE: Craig Cincotta, SVP & Head of Communications at Porch, provided us with the following statement:
After getting through an important and sensitive day for the company on Thursday, I can confirm that 90 people are no longer with our company.
Those impacted served across multiple roles and business functions – including sales, marketing, engineering, recruiting, operations, and design. A vast majority, approximately 60, were directly connected with our in–home Home Assistant program, a beta effort we were testing in Seattle and Chicago that we are no longer pursuing. The job reductions reflected an evolution of our business needs and our desire to focus more on the development of technology led solutions. We went through the process with a highest degree of thoughtfulness and the deepest respect for those who were affected.
In addition to an evolution in focus, and the acquisition of Fountain, we also made some changes to our executive team. We have welcomed Eric Doerr, a 20 year Microsoft veteran who most recently served as Partner GM for Microsoft Account and Azure Active Directory authentication to become our first ever Chief Product Officer. In addition, we have hired Jim Dantzler, previously the head of UX Design for Amazon Instant Video, as our new VP of Design.
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