MainStreet, a startup that helps other startups uncover tax credits that was valued at $500 million last year, has laid off about 30% of its staff, according to a tweet from CEO Doug Ludlow.
In that tweet, Ludlow said MainStreet “took the difficult step of reorganizing and restructuring the company” this week. He did not say if these cuts impacted all teams across the company or if any executives were laid off. He also did not state exactly how many employees are impacted by the move.
Ludlow added:
We did not take this decision lightly, and we are doing everything within our power to provide as much transition assistance (severance, health care, recruiter and job placement assistance) as is possible … We took this action because we believe that there is a very strong chance that today’s incredibly rough market is only going to get worse, and potentially remain so for months, if not years.
TechCrunch has reached out to the San Jose, California-based company for further details.
The startup built a business around helping startups uncover research and development tax credits, a pool of which it takes a 20% cut from. In 2020, MainStreet crossed the $1 million ARR run rate threshold and helped the average MainStreet client save $51,000, per previous TechCrunch reporting. In 2021, MainStreet’s revenue crossed $15 million, per industry newsletter Not Boring. It’s unclear what these figures look like today — but Ludlow’s tone suggests that growing challenges await.
“We believe that there is a very strong chance that today’s incredibly rough market is only going to get worse, and potentially remain so for months, if not years,” Ludlow continued in his Twitter thread. There’s been a string of layoffs recently, including Cameo cutting 87 members of its team and Amazon aggregator Thrasio confirming that it has begun laying off a portion of the company. Robinhood, a consumer investing and savings company, also announced that it is cutting 9% of staff, roughly 300 people.
MainStreet is backed by investors including SignalFire, Tusk Ventures, Shrug, Moxxie Ventures, Weekend Fund, Gradient Ventures, Sound and SV Angels. According to Crunchbase, the company has raised $64.7 million in known venture capital to date.
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