Uri Levine: evaluation

Transcript context

…That's a really great way of putting it. Just the math means the leverage you have now to extend runway is so much higher the sooner you make the decision. And the key, just going back to your algorithm of deciding if we need to act in this way quickly, is first think about what's being impacted, then how long is this impact going to last, and then how long do I have before you run out of money. And those questions is your advice for deciding, do we let people go now, do we raise money now. There is always, by the way, there is always alternative for let people go. In general, I would say letting people go is probably better than reducing salary for everyone. But let's say that you need cost reduction of 30%. One of the options is let 30% of the people go. Another option is actually reduce salary by 30% for everyone. And it's going to have the same impact. Not exactly, the same impact on the balance sheet and on the P&L, but not necessarily on the organization. If the organization feels that they are committed to each other, they will prefer the second way. If this is more of individuals, then obviously they will prefer the first way. Is there a different way? What about if management gives up on their salary? That might make the same impact. And definitely demonstration of leadership. And by the way, increasing the commitment of the rest of the organization. So in that sense, I would say there are multiple ways of reducing the cost. But in general, this is always about impacting people. If you look at the startup and you look at the budget, 70% of the budget is people, maybe 75% of the budget is people. Everything else is nickels and dimes. If you're going to tell me, "Oh no, we are going to start the supply of coffee to the office and this is how we are going to reduce cost. " No, this is how you create dissatisfaction with the team and you would reduce costs because some people would leave because of that, not because of lack of coffee, but because of inability to determine and to make hard decisions. So end of the day, if you need to reduce costs that means people. That was really good advice and really good set of options to consider versus laying people off. So most of what we've been talking about right now has been the cash crisis route. We've spent a little time on the product market fit crisis route. But I want to spend a little more time there. So for the cash crisis route, you have these kind of three questions and then it's like, cool, this will tell you how quickly to act and how severely to make cuts. In the product market fit route, is it essentially if you've lost product market fit, it's to pivot, is that basically the question? And then it's a question of where to pivot and what to do?…

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