The Scoop #18: Big Tech Joins the Tech Cooldown
The industry-wide cooldown has arrived at Google, Facebook, Oracle, Microsoft and VMWare. So, what is the mood like inside some of these companies?
The Scoop is a bonus series, covering patterns and trends I observe and hear about within Big Tech and at high-growth startups. Have a scoop to share? Send me a message!
It’s been another eventful week in tech, sadly still dominated by not just increasingly deep layoffs, but by what seems to be a Big Tech-wide cooldown. In this issue we cover:
What happens when a well-funded tech company threatens to sue over a LinkedIn post? Bitpanda did not like how a former employee published a LinkedIn post about the company’s layoffs, expressing his negative opinion. They demanded he remove the post and pay €800, or else they would drag him to court, claiming additional damages. What happened next was not what the $4B company – voted the #1 startup to work at in Austria – hoped for.
No intern return offers at Meta this summer. In what is a first, the company is not offering return offers for interns, even though handing out such return offers is one of the goals of expensive internships. What has changed to make the company give up calling dibs on standout entry-level engineers?
Meta: hiring down, stress up, morale declining. Lots happened in the past week, since Zuck’s comment about “turning the heat up”. Several software engineers I talked to are worried and pessimistic, and some are also bitter. I’ll share the reasons why.
Very deep layoffs at some VC-funded companies. Several companies are laying off 30% or more of their staff. Just in the past week Hopin, BRYTER, Tonal, Mythic AI and Airlift, all laid off 30-100% of employees. Why such deep cuts and what is the pattern among companies making these much more painful layoffs?
Big Tech bracing for an economic slowdown. Hiring freezes and slowdowns across all of Big Tech. Google joined the group this week, and I asked some employees for their takes. Microsoft and Oracle are now also slowing hiring significantly. We take a look at the “big picture” of hiring within Big Tech.
An alternative to the “remote work” perk for better startup hiring. Full-remote work used to be an easy way for startups to hire well - up until 2020. With remote work going mainstream, what other ways can smaller companies with lower budgets compete for software engineers? Here’s an idea.
As an update, The Pragmatic Engineer Talent Collective has more than 300 vetted software engineers and engineering leaders, about 80% of them based in the US and EU. If you are hiring for outstanding software engineers – frontend, fullstack, backend, mobile, data – or for engineering leadership talent, apply here to get instant access to these candidates hand-picked by me.
1. What happens when a well-funded tech company threatens to sue over a LinkedIn post?
As I was browsing LinkedIn yesterday – Wednesday July 13th – a post popped into my feed which grabbed my attention because it was about Bitpanda, the crypto trading startup which laid off about 25% its staff just weeks ago, as covered in The Scoop #16. The post was this:
I had to stop scrolling. Bitpanda threatening to sue a former employee because of a spicy LinkedIn post; is this a joke?
I checked the referenced post from two weeks ago, which was a typical rant from someone upset that the company they once worked for and loved, had done layoffs. The post used stronger language than is usual and was just full of emotion. Take this section:
“I used to love Bitpanda back in the days when I worked there but oh how the mighty fall. (...) I am sat here, shaking with anger for the employees and I don't even work there anymore! Genuinely shaking with anger. I have to bite my tongue to not tag specific people here but you know who you are and you are complicit in ruining hundreds of peoples' lives.”
The post gathered a few hundred likes, got less than 50 comments and a day later, everyone seemed to have moved on and forgotten about it.
Well, not Bitpanda. The company, in what seems like an attempt to remove all criticism of them on the social network, kicked off legal action that is known as SLAPP.
What is a SLAPP (Strategic lawsuits against public participation)? It’s a larger and more powerful lawsuit either threatening to sue or suing a smaller and financially weaker person or entity whom the plaintiff doesn’t necessarily intend to fight. The goal is to intimidate and exhaust the smaller player – financially, emotionally – so they remove the criticism of the plaintiff, rather than run up a sizeable bill defending themselves in court.
SLAPPs have a chilling effect on freedom of speech and are often used as an intimidation tactic. It’s not surprising to see such a tool used by oppressive governments against journalists, but I have not seen a well-funded startup use it, especially not for a LinkedIn post no one cared about anymore.
The odd thing about Bitpanda resorting to such bullying was how the company prides itself as a great employer, and has been voted as the #1 startup to work for in Austria, the company proudly advertising this news. As I understand, in Vienna – where it’s headquartered – it was the most desirable place to work for local software engineers, at least until the recent layoffs.
The risk of issuing a SLAPP is that a company can easily trigger the Streisand effect. The Streisand effect is the phenomenon whereby the more a company tries to hide some information, the more visibility it gets. It’s typical for a company to try and suppress information via a cease-and-desist letter. However, instead of being suppressed, the media gets interested and reports on it far more extensively than on the original information, spreading the story far wider.
Sure enough, after Declan Mulrooney – the former Bitpanda employee – published that he had received a cease-and-desist letter, the Streisand effect kicked in. Given how ridiculous such a lawsuit would be, especially in Austria, where free speech is strongly protected and the LinkedIn post was nothing but a series of opinions, I reshared this threat, and also offered to cover his legal fees, given that this person being threatened with legal action was unemployed. Other tech workers chimed in, offering to start a fundraiser.
At this point, Bitpanda’s Chief Growth Officer reached out to me directly, explaining they had no choice but to pursue the case. She wrote:
“We had to issue the legal letter not because he was expressing his feelings, but because he publicly accused Bitpanda of doing an illegal restructuring. This is an unsubstantiated claim that is not only untrue, but defamatory and damaging to our reputation. (...)
Everyone is free to express their own opinions, being them positive or negative. We all own what we say and do though, with the consequences that come along when we make unsubstantiated, defamatory claims. Otherwise, where do we draw the line?”
I responded, confirming that we’re calling the bluff and ready to go to court over what is clearly a SLAPP. By this point, the employee in question had received interest from Bloomberg and The Financial Times, about covering this SLAPP. I also reached out to Bitpanda’s founder and CEO for comment on why they are threatening to sue over an opinion piece - but never heard back.
A day later, Bitpanda formally withdrew its threat to sue. As the Declan Mulrooney shared in the final update:
“IT IS OVER. Bitpanda has dropped its case against me! We won. 🥳️
Legal bullying loses...again.
Within two hours of reading my response to the lawyers and demanding no further correspondence from them, I was contacted by a a very special face from Bitpanda who graciously told me that all proceedings will end and that it was regretful that this ever happened with which I agree. Of course they know they would never have won this case but now I can breathe more easy and go about my life.
I can not confirm whether this applies to ALL of those who received legal notices but you can refer them to this. If you receive more letters, forward them to me and I will deal with them. If I am free, so are you and I will fight for that. My case is not over until your cases are over. That goes for any case like this in the future from Bitpanda - who watches the Panda? Me. 🧐”
What is the takeaway for founders and CEOs? Be careful about using SLAPPs or cease-and-desist orders to try to remove information from social media. Only do it if you are willing to pursue a case in the glare of media reporting about your lawsuit, and if you have a good reason to. If the reason is petty, such as personally disliking an opinion on the internet, or if the power imbalance is large, like threatening to sue a former employee who is unemployed; then there’s a good chance the media will report it extensively.
Also, be aware of your employer brand. Bitpanda has consciously built a strong employer brand. However, what will future employees think of the firm, in light of the SLAPP? Perhaps that Bitpanda will not hesitate to sue if they share anything negative about the company, even years after leaving the company.
What is the takeaway for employees who are threatened with lawsuits unless they remove information they’ve posted? It’s that complying with a demand which comes from a much more powerful entity is not the only option.
If the request is outrageous because there’s a power imbalance, then there’s a chance you can rally the support from the media, and, ultimately, embarrass the company into dropping the legal threat. You can do what Declan Mulrooney did and share publicly that you’ve been issued with a legal threat, and ask for support in spreading the news.
In this case, Bitpanda might have messed with the wrong person. Declan Mulrooney is not a software engineer: he is a communications manager. His original post was written in a way that resonated with many people: David bullied around by Goliath for no good reason. Also, not having a job at the moment, Declan had little to lose, but lots to gain by calling out the company. As a note, Declan is open to work if your company is hiring someone in marketing or creative communications.
You can also consider launching a crowdfunding campaign to cover legal fees. Such a campaign can achieve multiple things at the same time: spread more awareness and gather financial support from people who dislike companies abusing their power.
Reaching out directly to the media is also an option, although it’s more powerful if you gather enough attention online that reporters reach out directly to you. This is because the journalists get far more pitches than they can process, so sending a direct pitch might get lost in the crowd.
If you fail to gather enough media attention or community support, you’ll have to decide if it’s worth your financial and mental wellbeing to go on a long and tiring fight against the bigger entity. However, if you don’t try to rally support, you’ll never know.
To close off: I have heard claims that Bitpanda has issued similar cease-and-desist letters to other employees. I expect the company has withdrawn these by now. But if this is not the case, feel free to contact Declan or myself.
2. No intern return offers at Meta this summer
In what is a surprise to interns, Meta cut is not extending any intern return offers this summer. The company has a hiring freeze in place for software engineers below the E6 level. I wrote about this in March, in The Scoop #6: