Just a few months ago, discount hotel chain OYO seemed unstoppable. The India-based startup touted plans for global expansion and saw its valuation double to $10 billion in October. But in mid-January, the company began sweeping layoffs that have seen thousands lose their jobs. Last September, Fair.com, a car-leasing startup that raised nearly $400 million in a funding roughly a year earlier, acquired one of its rivals, Canvas, only to slash 40% of its workforce weeks later. The goal, according to a memo at the time that Fair.com directed CNN Business to from its then-CEO, was to “be a smaller team, focused on doing fewer things well.” One laid off Canvas-turned Fair employee said it was “a rollercoaster.” (Fair declined to comment beyond the memo.)

Actually the ‘startup’ model always been around the ‘hyper-growth’ at any cost¹. So they could outcompete the established players or get too much head start over the new comers., or otherwise just grab as much market share, in a shorter period of time, as they can. 

However it comes at a price and price is what VCs are willing to pay or at least used to pay for the hyper-growth. Traditionally businesses grow organically, as did our. However VC-Startup partnership totally changed the economics and dynamics of the businesses. 

Anyhow speaking of Flexport specifically, I guess laying off merely 50 personnel does not even count as opposed to other larger lay-offs, for instance Oyo another Softbank funded startup laid off over 3300 personnel.

1. However in the aftermath of WeWork fiasco, things are changing quite rapidly, in particular Softbank has made a major shift in their strategy, they are trying to minimize losses and seek profitability in the near future for their funded startups., by reducing headcounts and overheads.