Inside startup shutdowns with the creator of Layoffs.FYI (re-run)

Equity

TechCrunch

Founders, Silicon Valley, Finance, Ipo, Vc, Technology, Business News, Startups, Business, Venture Capital, News, Stock Market, Entrepreneurship, Techcrunch

4.2 • 365 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today on Equity, we're throwing it back to when Mary Ann interviewed Roger Lee, an entrepreneur who’s spent the better part of a decade building tools for employees and employers alike. Lee is an angel investor as well the creator of Layoffs.FYI and co-founder of Comprehensive and Human Interest. Roger joined us on the show last year in the wake of 2022’s tech layoffs, but this week we’re focusing on the business of shutting down and why investors are lining up to back startups in the space, including Roger. We also talked about: Just how many more companies shut down in 2023 compared to 2022 (spoiler alert, it was a lot!) How many more layoffs we saw last year compared to years prior The types of companies winding down and laying off How his work is tied to all of it and the role of AI Press play and join the conversation! Equity will be back on Friday, but don't forget to keep up with us in the meantime on X and Threads @EquityPod.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome back to Equity a podcast about the business of
0:14.8	startups where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. I'm
0:18.9	Mary Ann Asavado and this is our interview show where we sit down with a
0:22.2	guest think about their work and unpack the rest.
0:25.3	Today we're talking to angel investor, creator of layoffs.FI and co-founder of comprehensive.
0:31.5	I.O. and human interest, Roger Lee.
0:34.3	Roger, welcome back to the show, so happy to have you here.
0:37.4	Thanks for having me again.
0:38.6	Yeah, we're super excited.
0:40.4	Roger joined us on the show last year in the wake of 2022's tech layoffs but today
0:45.2	we're focusing on the business of shutting down and why investors are lining up to
0:49.5	back startups in this space. Listeners may recall our coverage of sunset and simple closure
0:54.2	to companies that recently raised capital to help other startups wind down.
0:57.7	So we'll not only be talking about that, we'll also touch on recent layoff
1:01.8	numbers and the outlook for the rest of the year when it comes to both shutdowns and layoffs.
1:07.0	So to start, Roger, you invested in Sunset.
1:10.0	They just raised capital, I believe it was about 1.4 million in funding, mostly from angel investors.
1:16.2	Simple closure also raised money. And Carter recently announced that it's entering the space with its own offering.
1:22.4	I was curious, how did you hear about this company?
1:25.1	What drew you to invest in it and why do you think this space is one that is worth investing in
1:30.5	overall? Well I've always been excited about businesses that help automate very manual and tedious processes
1:39.0	dating back from my time at human interest doing that for 401k's to what I'm doing now
	...

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