The following letter was sent to StrongDM staff on Feb 23, 2023 from StrongDM CEO, Tim Prendergast:
Team,
It is with great regret that I write to tell you that today, we are saying goodbye to 40 of our teammates from across the company. I wanted everyone to learn the news directly from me, rather than catching wind of it indirectly.
If you are one of the people impacted, you will be receiving an invite to a meeting in the next 15 minutes from {the People team}. Please accept the invite and plan on attending the meeting even if you have a conflict.
How did we get here? We made strategic mistakes in how we grew parts of the company which necessitated several course corrections over the last fiscal year. The changes and tweaks we made to the business model have started proving out and informed us about the size and shape the company should be.
In light of the economic challenges that are hitting the entire tech sector, it is necessary to refocus our product and revenue strategy. This will enable us to execute against the long term plan.
What is the long-term plan? We are attacking the fortress of the traditional PAM and completely changing the way that people manage credentials and access. We’ve proven that there is an important place for an access platform that delivers value across an organization, from DevOps to Security to Risk/Compliance and the CISO—and we’re committed to pushing hard down this path.
What other things did we consider? We looked at cutting costs across the board. We reviewed each vendor we currently do business with to ensure there’s not duplicative coverage and went back to renegotiate contracts where possible. Ultimately, we could not get to where we needed to be with cost optimizations, as our largest expense category is employee compensation. We also recognized the need to reshape the team, so options like salary reductions wouldn’t get us to the right outcome.
Am I impacted? If you’ve been invited to a meeting today with {someone from the People team}, the answer is yes. Please attend those meetings so you understand what your severance package will be and how the offboarding process works. If you received an invite from me, please attend that meeting so I can share further details with you about how we’ll continue forth as one team. We will also repurpose the Daily to walk through these changes and answer any questions.
For those of you leaving us today: I am truly sorry that these actions are impacting you and your family. The contributions you made to StrongDM over the course of your tenure will forever be a part of the StrongDM story. You did great work and you should be proud of that. We will do everything we can to ensure that you land on solid ground.
For those of you staying on: Do what you need to do to ensure our customers are supported today and also provide support to those team members who are leaving. Strong bonds are formed during times of adversity – I’ve watched that happen daily over the past year and a half. I’m confident that we will continue growing stronger as one team to support our customers and each other.
Tim
