Ancestry lays off 6% of staff

https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/05/ancestry-lays-off-6-of-staff-as-consumer-genetic-testing-market-continues-to-decline/

by lxm • 6 years ago

107 61 6 years ago

Incomplete. Its all the DNA business.

suresk7• 6 years ago

Lots of layoffs in Utah tech companies lately. Instructure just let go of 10%, other layoffs related to WeWork, and a bunch of other small companies.

Still seems like there is a shortage of developers here and most people should find new work pretty easily, but it is always a little unsettling to have a bunch of layoffs in quick sequence.

milosdog• 6 years ago

Instructure just let go of 10%

Off topic, but indeed they did. Lots of people leaving, too. Things are not going to end well there.

suresk7• 6 years ago

Yeah, that one has been sad to watch. I worked there several years ago and thought it was a great place, but it seems like things have gone downhill a bit lately.

julius_set2• 6 years ago

It’s not just Utah they have headquarters in San Francisco as well lots of people let go here too.

sky_rw• 6 years ago

Every-time a PR comes out like this I see this sort of comment. Is there any evidence that layoffs are engineering based? I always assume the first to go are marketing/admin/etc rather than developers.

julius_set2• 6 years ago

Yes it was I’m one of the ones affected. I’ve done mobile engineering both iOS and Android for around ~5 years.

If anyone’s looking :)

suresk7• 6 years ago

All of the various layoffs I’ve been aware of have included a decent number of engineers. Often it is changing direction or giving up on certain products, so entire product teams get let go. Plus, we’re usually the most expensive.

flukus• 6 years ago

A lot of managers still operate under the assumption that software has a "build phase" and a "maintenance phase" and that they can get rid of most developers for the later. Aside from the obvious problems when they still want new features there's a correlation between the head count used to build something and the head count needed to effectively maintain it, 1 person won't be able to handle the enterprise mess that 100 people create.

So I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was engineers being let go a lot of the time. Especially at non software shops where marketing is bringing in money and the engineers are a cost.

robjan• 6 years ago

People always report on the layoffs and not the hiring drives. I wouldn't worry too much.

cookiecaper2• 6 years ago

The market here in Utah is bananas. I could walk down the street and get a 30-60% raise easy. Indeed there have been a few layoffs in the last month or so, but the companies aren't really a surprise and the market is still blazing. New companies are moving in literally daily.

SLC has been a great underground tech market for a long time, but word is getting out. California companies can't get away from the intractable chaos out there fast enough, and SLC is just an hour's flight away. New companies are pouring in much faster than we can handle 'em.

If you're a good tech worker in SLC, first, get in touch with me because I like meeting cool people, and second, if you've been affected by these layoffs, chin up, go to the next building over, and there's a realistic chance you'll have a better job in a matter of days.

kraigie2• 6 years ago

SLC also has lots of US citizen foreign language speakers. As well as those with experiences of other cultures.

Really handy for foreign companies expanding.

Send a founder and hire a local VP who can translate to American customers and Employees. Plus close to SV.

I'm surprised Utah isn't in the council of American States in Europe. Or otherwise looking for inward investment.

jacquesm• 6 years ago

I could walk down the street and get a 30-60% raise easy.

So what is stopping you?

craftyguy2• 6 years ago

What did they expect? They don't really offer a valuable service besides a one-off test + results. At some point you're going to hit everyone who wants to use the service, they'll use it exactly once, and you'll have no more market.

Kiro3• 6 years ago

They have subscriptions. It's not just about the one-offs since your family tree expands all the time and in order to access that you need to keep paying.

craftyguy2• 6 years ago

Obviously the value of their subscription service is not compelling enough for their business to sustain itself.

vikinghckr• 6 years ago

Everyone should read "The End of the Beginning" by Ben Thompson [1].

[1] https://stratechery.com/2020/the-end-of-the-beginning/

AlexCoventry• 6 years ago

That was great, but I don't see the connection to Ancestry's recent layoffs.

dehrmann• 6 years ago

The web didn’t bridge Microsoft’s moat — it went around, and made it irrelevant.

Reminds me a bit of how generals are always fighting the previous war.

bcrosby95• 6 years ago

I'm hoping the next phase would be having the cloud literally in your pocket, able to seamlessly integrate with any interface you want.

Your phone. Your keyboard/mouse/monitor. Your TV. All talk to one computing device.

ErikAugust• 6 years ago

I hear they are trying to make it more of a family business.

kalium_xyz• 6 years ago

Is it a shock to anyone when a company whos business model does not allow for return customers suddenly find themselves less in demand?

j88439h84• 6 years ago

business model does not allow for return customers

How's that?

mythrwy• 6 years ago

Would you buy the same DNA test a second time from the same company?

blaser-waffle2• 6 years ago

You map out your ancestry. That's great: records found, tree built, work complete. Business relationship over.

Kiro3• 6 years ago

I agree but I also want to point out that they do have subscriptions. My mom is a subscriber just to get access to the real-time family trees.

I presume most people are not returning though.

Symbiote• 6 years ago

Once you've made the tree, isn't that the end?

A relative of mine researched our family tree. After 2-3 years she presented it to everyone. Most people weren't really interested for more than 10 minutes, but tried to respect the effort she'd put in to it.

Now we all have less/no future need for an ancestry service.

ilaksh• 6 years ago

I suspect some of the recent layoffs may be related to the overall economy.

For example the global debt crisis Dalio talks about.

anon176• 6 years ago

My wife subscribes to their service. I can say, you pay a lot for what you get.

thrower123• 6 years ago

It's always seemed really expensive for what it is. I've looked up some family members, and all they really have is badly digitized scans of public documents that some library made available.

How little of this type of thing exists in any searchable format other than driving to a library and finding somebody who knows how microfiche works is very frustrating.

grumple• 6 years ago

Companies seem to have a really difficult time taking a moment to acknowledge or thank the workers being laid off. Would be nice to see that change in these corporate layoff announcements. This came close, but it's almost like pr and executives are allergic to expressing actual gratitude.

nkrisc• 6 years ago

My last company had a couple rounds of layoffs last year (including me eventually), everyone in the executive leadership kept referring to it in such a roundabout way. They'd always call it, "the reorg" and the people laid off were people, "impacted" by it.

So you had to fire a bunch of people for no fault of their own. I get it, that's business sometimes when the times aren't good. But just say it. I do believe our CEO is genuinely a good person and did not feel good about doing it, so maybe there's a component of protecting one's own emotions in there as well by speaking around it.

Ancestry lays off 6% of staff

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