Airtable will eliminate 237 positions, marking the second significant workforce reduction in under a year for the San Francisco productivity software maker. The cuts arrive as the company sharpens its focus on enterprise clients, leaving more than a quarter of its staff out of work.
CEO Howie Liu disclosed the layoffs Friday in a message to employees. A company spokesperson confirmed the reductions span every department and touch all office locations, including downtown San Francisco, Mountain View, Austin, Los Angeles, New York and London.
Those affected receive at least 16 weeks of severance, six months of health care premiums, and select stock benefits.
The announcement follows a December round that removed 254 workers. Liu told Forbes he regrets letting the firm get swept up in the sector’s frantic hiring spree during the pandemic. Airtable pursued talent aggressively, he said, hiring “as many smart people as we can and just throw them into the business.”
That strategy helped fuel meteoric growth. Airtable crossed the $1 billion valuation threshold in 2018, then rode surging demand for remote collaboration tools to an $11 billion valuation by late 2021. The company raised $735 million in a single funding round that December.
Now, Liu describes a “sickening feeling” about the layoffs while defending them as necessary for long-term stability. His note to staff balanced the grim news with an unexpectedly optimistic outlook.
“As a cash flow positive business with a large capital reserve, we’ll now have the ability to invest and hire in new areas,” he wrote.
The company, founded a decade ago, builds customizable applications for marketing, sales, human resources, finance, operations and product teams. Its latest restructuring signals a strategic bet on landing bigger contracts rather than chasing broad user growth.
