Cloud-based startup Optimizely to lay off 10% staff

By Staff Writer

Mar 11, 2016 02:51 AM EST

Cloud-based startup Optimizely has decided to lay off 10 percent of its employees across all the departments. Optimizely is the latest startup to cut down jobs and many startups to follow the suit. Based on recent round of finance, Otpimizely was valued at $585 million.

Set up in 2009, San Francisco-based Optimizely has received over $146 million investments including $58 million round in 2015. Top-tier venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and Benchmark Capital have invested in Optimizely. Several startups have started laying off employees and Instacart, Mixpanel and Zenefits were few among them. 

Venture Beat reports that Optimizely has sent an e-mail to its employees about the layoff decision. As part of this 40 of total 400 employees will lose jobs. Optimizely's co-founder and Chief Executive Dan Siroker keen on making the startup a profitable one without any funding support further. 

Dan Siroker said in the e-mail: "While it is sad to see fellow Optinauts move on, it is the right thing to do for Optimizely in order for us to accelerate our journey to Controlling Our Own Destiny."

Employees of several Silicon Valley-based startups will have to face turbulent situation in the days to come as Optimizely is not the last one to layoff. Moreover, the valuations of startups constrict across the technology industry. The recent round of financing in October 2015, Otpimizely was valued at $585 million, according to Pitchbook, a research firm. Optimizely saved 26 percent costs in the past six months, as reported by Forbes

Elaborating about company's future plans in the e-mail addressed to employees, Siroker said: "Over the last six months, we have collectively saved over $1.4mln by more wisely investing our resources and we have also become more productive as measured by the revenue per Optinaut, which has grown 26 percent."

Optimizely made it easier that anyone can do website A/B testing. It even surpassed Adobe to become most adopted website optimization platform in the world. Right from its inception, it managed to double revenues every year consistently. Optimizely has adopted in August 2015 the goal of Controlling Our Own Destiny. Towards this objective, it's taking some bold measures and structural changes to business including 10 percent reduction in workforce, as said by Dan Siroker in Optimizely Blog.

Siroker further elaborated that public cloud companies collectively lost $28 billion in market value on 5 February. Some of the market value recovered so far, but there's shift in the market as it has validated approach that Optimizely adopted in August 2015.

Optimizely is a firm that makes customer-experience optimization software for companies. The Optimizely platform technology provides businesses with the ability to conduct A/B testing, in which two versions of a page can be compared for performance

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