The Scoop #24: Office Shutdowns and Return to the Office at Apple
Snap and Uber are closing offices, while Apple is mandating a return to the office. And more.
The Scoop is a bonus series covering insights, 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! I treat all such messages as anonymous.
The Scoop sometimes delivers firsthand, original reportage. I’m adding an ‘Exclusive’ label to news that features original reporting direct from my sources, as distinct from analysis, opinion, and reaction to events. Of course, I also analyze what’s happening in the tech industry, citing other media sources and quoting them as I dive into trends I observe. These sections do not carry the ‘Exclusive’ mark.
Today’s topics are:
Zenly shut down despite 40M monthly active users (MAUs) and accelerating growth. Zenly is a location-based social network. In 2017, the app had a few hundred thousand monthly users and Snap bought it for $213M. Five years later, with 40M monthly active users and accelerating growth, Snap suddenly decided to shut Zenly down. What happened, and what can other acquisitions learn from the fate of Zenly? Exclusive.
The layoffs at Zenly and Snap. How is this process progressing? I talked with people on the ground and gathered details on the packages offered. Exclusive.
Uber is shutting its Vilnius, Lithuania engineering office. Eight years after opening the engineering hub, Uber is shutting down this location. The official reason? The difficulty of hiring, local senior leadership. What is the history of this engineering office, and how is this shutdown phased? Exclusive.
Are more seed-stage startups running out of money? I’ve noticed more early-stage startups across founders I know running out of money, and going up for sale or being shut down. I asked other investors what they see in this space. Is it business as usual or is there an uptick? Exclusive.
Apple’s return to the office (RTO) in London. Software engineers working at Apple in London are already back at the office. How was this RTO executed, what are the challenges, and what are current Apple engineers saying about this work setup, versus remote work? Exclusive.
Google starting to hire software engineers again? Some good news from the Big Tech giant from candidates in the interview pipeline. Exclusive.