Member-only story
There’s a great story in Ben Horowitz’s book, “The Hard Thing About Hard Things”, that I can really relate to. In the book, Horowitz’s company, Opsware, was going to IPO. At the same time, they were going to perform a layoff.
Horowitz was planning on being in New York for the IPO until one of Opsware’s board members, the legendary Bill Campbell, had a chat with him. Campbell told him his responsibility was to be with the employees he was laying off.
Horowitz realized Campbell was right, and he stayed in California to talk with any employee that wanted to talk. That’s how it should be. After all…
It’s your fault that your employees are being let go.
When I read the Horowitz Opsware layoff story, I mumbled to myself, “I had to do the same thing.”
As part of our Series B funding, I had no choice but to perform a layoff. “Raul”, one of our investors was happy I was doing this, and he said, “That is sacrosanct.”
I, on the other hand, was bummed. These were really good people that I was going to let go. Their lives would be changed forever, not because they had done anything wrong, but because I had failed them.
Nothing sucks more than laying people off or firing people except if you’re the…
