The Scoop #40: Performance reviews, equity refreshers and cost cutting
Performance reviews stricter this year, equity refreshers cut back at Instacart, and Google cutting back in decades-old investment areas.
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 reporting. 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:
Stricter performance reviews? A follow-up. More confirmation that performance reviews are stricter than usual, and low performers are exited at some companies. A scaleup founder also shares candid details about why this is happening, and why it’s likely to continue in places where headcount budgets have shrunk. Exclusive.
Coinbase: formerly high equity awards now taking their toll. In 2022, the company issued 3x as much average equity to their employees, than Google did, and spent 10x as much in equity compensation, compared to revenue, than the search giant did. Why the imbalance? And what can other companies learn from Coinbase spending more than 60% of their revenue on stock compensation? Analysis.
Instacart reducing equity awards. The company made a large change on how it issues equity. I go into the details of what this change means, and the implications. Could more companies follow suit? Exclusive.
Google ended its coding competition after 20 years. Why? I’ve talked with people involved in organizing the competition for more details. Exclusive details and analysis.
Developer portals: market insights. How will developer portal markets evolve, in a segment with Backstage as a major open source player? I talked with the founders of developer portal startups Cortex and Port. Exclusive.