Salesforce CEO admits 'we hired too many people' as company lays off +7,000 employees

TechCrunch Newsletter [TechCrunch logo]( [The Daily Crunch logo]( By [Christine Hall]( Wednesday, January 04, 2023 Hello, and welcome to the middle of the week. CES is starting tomorrow, so bookmark TechCrunch’s [dedicated CES page]( to catch up on all the happenings. Now, onto the news! — [Christine]( [ image] Image Credits: Stephen Lam / Getty Images The TechCrunch Top 3 - [Another round of layoffs](: [Paul]( has the latest on what’s happening over at Salesforce. The company said it had to cut its workforce by 10% — approximately 7,000 people — and will close offices in several markets. He checked out Salesforce’s SEC filing related to the matter and reported that CEO Marc Benioff stated the layoffs were a result of hiring “too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing.” - [Not so happy new year](: More privacy fines and corrective measures greeted Meta as the calendar flipped to a new year. The company was hit with over $410 million in new fines from the European Union due to the number of “General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) complaints over the legal basis [Meta] claims [it has] to run behavioral ads,” [Natasha L]( writes. - [Get food, mail your packages](: Now you can have your food and your packages too. DoorDash is launching a new service that will pick up prepaid packages and drop them off at a UPS, FedEx or USPS location, [Aisha]( reports. [The Johnson Cornell Tech MBA is for innovators like you]( Sponsored by [Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management]( [Accelerate your success in tech with business, management, and teamwork skills. Based at the Cornell Tech campus in NYC, the one-year Johnson Cornell Tech MBA connects tech innovation with the entrepreneurial spirit of New York City—and beyond.]( [Learn More]( Startups and VC It’s Autodesk’s turn for a competitor, and Snaptrude wants to be it. [The startup took in some fresh venture capital]( to take on the design giant in the building design space,[Jagmeet]( writes. Snaptrude wants to infuse better interoperability and cloud-based collaboration where others, like Autodesk, have lagged. And we have four more for you: - App-solutely too slow: If your mobile app can’t keep up, customers may keep away. Product Science, which [develops mobile app performance monitoring tools](, landed $18 million to find flaws in execution to minimize app freezes and errors,[Kyle]( writes. - It’s all so surreal: Also by [Kyle](,[SurrealDB]( joins a crowded managed database service industry, raising $6 million for its database-as-a-service approach. - IP oh no: The market uncertainty that has plagued the online grocery delivery industry has caught up with South Korean grocery startup [Kurly, which scrapped its IPO](,[Kate]( reports. - “There’s a great future in plastics”: Singapore-based AlterPacks took in $1 million in pre-seed funding to [turn food waste into food containers](, [Catherine]( writes. [5 failure points between $5M and $100M in ARR]( Before Tracy Young was co-founder and CEO of TigerEye, she held identical roles at construction productivity software startup PlanGrid. Even though she led the company to $100 million in ARR before its acquisition by Autodesk, “I’ve had years to dissect the mistakes I made with my first startup,” she writes in TC+. Young looks back at “five key failure points” that are common potholes on every founder’s path and shares tactical advice for addressing internal conflict, losing product-market fit, and other stumbles. “If these reflections help even one founder make one less mistake, I would consider this effort worthwhile.” Two more from the TC+ team: - No, no, not guilty was a good thing: [Jacquelyn]( spoke to some legal experts who say [Sam Bankman-Fried was smart to plead not guilty](. - Hype or ripe?: [Becca]( queried 35 investors to get their [2023 predictions on a number of VC-related topics](, including capital deployment strategies, web3/crypto and what will happen with valuations. [TechCrunch+]( is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack.[You can sign up here](. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! [Read More]( [5 failure points between $5M and $100M in ARR image] Image Credits: Javier Zayas Photography / Getty Images Big Tech Inc. [Roku is expanding its product line]( to include a range of 11 smart televisions that the company says it designed and built with its own services in mind, [Sarah]( writes. And you won’t have to wait very long to get them — they will be available beginning in the spring. Meanwhile, the TechCrunch team at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas filed 16 stories since yesterday evening. [You can find all of them here](, but I wanted to point out a few I’ve enjoyed reading so far: - Bird-watching fans can get their fill of hummingbird species sightings with [Bird Buddy’s new smart hummingbird feeder](. [Sarah]( reports it can photograph and identify 350 different bird species. - “Urine” for a special treat with [Haje](’s look at Withings’ U-Scan, which [puts a urine analysis lab in your toilet](. - If you’re looking for some toy nostalgia, [WowWee returns to robots with a dog named ‘Dog-E.’]( [Brian]( has more. - Who needs to just sit in cars staring out the window when you can pretend to be somewhere else? Holoride launches a new device [to bring VR entertainment to any vehicle](,[Kirsten]( writes. And we have five more for you: - Something going down Down Under: In Twitter news, [Manish]( reports that a lot of [users in Australia are experiencing service issues](. Meanwhile, the social network is said to be [reversing a political ad ban to bolster up its revenue](, [Ivan]( reports. - Up up and away: Stellantis is set [to mass produce Archer’s electric aircraft]( in an expanded deal that will give the company access to up to $150 million over the next two years, [Kirsten]( reports. - Time is on your side: Musical tastes change, so to document it, Spotify’s [new time capsule feature]( will let you revisit your musical taste a year from now,[Aisha]( writes. - And yet some more layoffs: The new year was also not good for Vimeo, which had [another round of layoffs]( said to impact 11% of employees,[Lauren]( writes. - Settlement reached: New York financial regulators settled with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase for a $100 million fine after finding it [violated anti–money laundering laws]( by failing to conduct adequate background checks, [Amanda]( reports. [Read more stories on TechCrunch.com]( Newest Jobs from Crunchboard - [IT Technology Analyst II at Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (Middletown, PA, United States)]( - [Business Process Specialist - Procurement at Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (Middletown, PA, United States)]( - [IT Technology Analyst I at Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (Middletown, PA, United States)]( - [Information Security Officer at Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (Pasadena, CA, USA)]( - [Chief, Information Technology at Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (Pasadena, CA, USA)]( [See more jobs on CrunchBoard]( [Post your tech jobs]( and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Youtube]( [Instagram]( [Flipboard]( [View this email online in your browser]( [Privacy Policy]( | [Terms of Service]( | [Unsubscribe]( © 2023 Yahoo. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103