Indian IT Startup Shuts Down Overnight, 19 Employees Laid Off On Video Call

A Reddit post about a layoff at an Indian IT startup has gone viral, sparking outrage online. In the post, the employee claimed that the CEO of a four-year-old startup suddenly called the workers for a video call during what seemed like a typical workday. However, in the meeting, the boss disclosed that the company, related to cloud/chatbot management, had run out of money and was shutting down right that moment. The Redditor said that none of the 19 employees saw that coming because there had been "no warnings, no layoffs". 

"It was supposed to be just another normal workday at our (now former) startup. But around midday, we all got an unexpected email from the CEO calling for an urgent all-hands meeting. In that meeting, he told us something none of us saw coming: the company had completely run out of money. We wouldn't be getting paid this month, and effective immediately, the company was shutting down. All of our investors had pulled out. He told us not to report to work the next day," the Redditor wrote.

"And just like that, a four-year-old startup was gone. Nineteen people, myself included, are suddenly out of a job. It still hasn't fully sunk in. We had our struggles, sure, but there was no warning. No layoffs. No bridge funding. No communication that we were in real trouble" the user added. 

Our startup shut down overnight—19 of us lost our jobs
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The employee further wrote that though the CEO said he would try to help the laid-off individuals get new roles, his promise was insignificant. "I'm posting this partly to process everything, and partly to hear from others who've gone through something similar. How did you handle the shock? How did you bounce back?" the Redditor concluded. 

Reacting to the post, one user shared, "I was in the same situation in November; I remember waking up in the morning and thinking that today I'll complete this task, and I won't have any Jira tickets left for this sprint and will enjoy it now. But suddenly, in the standup, my CEO informed us that investors had asked us to shut down all operations in a month, so we had only one month to find new jobs. I was shattered as it was my very first job. It took me 2 days to even process this, and then I started working towards getting a job; it took some time, but I got a job. So I think, don't lose hope, you'll definitely get something. Just give it some time and trust the process."

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"I had a similar experience 2 months ago. My sister was in the hospital and bills were piling up. It was month end so I thought I just had to work through another week to get paid and get back on track. I opened Slack and nobody was online. An email requesting me to schedule a meeting with the Co-founders was sitting in the inbox. I did just that. All the co-founders and my team lead joined the meeting. The call barely lasted 3 minutes. And just like that, the entire office was let go. Been struggling ever since, as I am a fresher," wrote another. 

"I have been through this. First reaction and the one that lasts is SELF DOUBT. Trust me OP, this shall too pass. Opportunities arise out of no where. For now keep belief in yourself alive. It is tough time for sure. But keep fighting," committed a third user. 

"A similar thing happened to me in May. One fine day , everyone on the team was fired. The founder had failed to get funding and that was it. The founder had personally assured everyone that they had money till the end of the year and then this happened. I did get two months garden leave which made my life a little bit easier. Got a job recently after a grueling grind. Get on the grind man, hiring is slow but steady," one Redditor shared. 

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