re: Blocks (parent company of Square & Cash App) lays off nearly 50% of workforce due to AI

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Few thoughts on the $XYZ cuts:

- TL:DR: Mostly about XYZ being poorly run. Not really about AI. But most other smidcap tech also poorly run. Expect many more cuts

- Below I tweeted that they only needed 60% of their company. That wasn’t a random number. Pull up any fintech/SaaS chart and you can see that employee count exploded when demand exploded in 2020. But now these companies are way too bloated
- But, frick me. I did not expect them to cut 40% at once. I think it’s basically impossible to identify the right 40% in one go. So huge operational risk there. But maybe better for morale than multiple cuts. Who knows. Unprecedented. frickin a.

- We now have 2 examples of this happening with Jack, so it’s easy to say he runs a bad, bloated business. I have been vocal about this. Toast and Clover should not be anywhere near the scale they’re at. Tidal? Afterpay? Come on. Pretty sure he threw a $70M party for the team last year. There is a lot here that is just one bad management decision after another
- I *also* think it’s a mistake to define this as purely a “Jack” issue. As I said, pull up the employee charts and the revenue charts. I’d say to pull up the earnings charts but for many they are negative, which we all know. These companies are way too bloated. And they are having their clocks cleaned by smaller, more nimble startups. They have to get lean to survive. I think the realistic, average number is 20-25% for many of these companies. But there are plenty that could cut 40% too.

- I think this basically has nothing to do with AI. I bet there are some roles they can eliminate, and some where they can increase scope. Let’s call it 5%

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